Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established Third of a Century.] FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1905. TRAFALGAR DAY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 8278, 20 October 1905, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established Third of a Century.] FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1905. TRAFALGAR DAY.

It is a hundred years ago to-day since Nelson, the groat captain of the seas, the naval hero of all the annals of history, lost his life at Trafalgar in the hour of victory. The writer has conversed with men who served under Lord Nelson, and to him the day when he served his country in the flesh does not appear so remote. 'Nelson has, during the long years which have passed away since the day of Trafalgar, been an assimilating influence which has inspired every British boy who has taken to the sea as a profession. For all time he is part and parcel of the naval history of the Empire. What British heart does not warm even today at the name of Nelson, and who is not the prouder, because he is able to call him countryman ?

Lord Nelson was a man of splendid talent, which was backed by a dauntless courage. We cannot conceive a man to be braver than our national hero. He made Great Britain the ruler of the seas, and this high and eminent.position of the Empire to which wo belong has been held and administered for the. good of humanity. A great power of this kind might have been used merely for selfish purposes of aggrandisement, and from this point of view it would not have been entitled to respect. Fortunately it has ever been exercised to police the ocean highways and to restrain lawlessness and piracy. " We may be prouder of the grand use to which the great power, which Nelson gave us, has been applied, rather than of the power itself.

"0! it is excellent To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous To use it like a'giant."

Our naval power for a century past has had a giant's strength; but it-has been used gently for-the good of all nations. Nelson, our national is still our Lord High Admiral, "inspiring one and all. on the sea

with his own intrepid spirit and selfrestraint.

The real greatness of the Empiro to which we belong rests rathor upon character and conduct than upon mere armament?. The man who gave us the keynote to the character and conduct of our navy was Nelson, and this immense servico was not completed when ho was mortally wounded at Trafalgar. It has been a living reality ever since, during tho hundred years which have nov elapsed ; and to-day it animates not only the captains of our fleets, but men of other nations, like Admiral Togo, who take Nelson as a type to be studied and copied. It was our own national poet and prophet who wrote in the stately limes of the great Elizabeth concerning the safety of England —a safety which was assured in the day cf peril by the intrepid Nelson:

Let us be baclt'd with God and with the seas Which He hath given for fence impregnable, And with their helps only defend ourselves ; In them and in ourselves our safety lies.