The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-04-19 00:00:00

IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN COOS.

The statue of Captain Cook which has been erected in
Hyde park, Sydney, was unvei!ed on the 25th of February by
Sir Hercules Robinson, Governor of New South Wales, in the
presence of a vast assemblage, said to number at least 70,000
persons. The day was made a public holiday. The Sydney
Morning Herald says of the statue :

"The attitude is striking and vigorous, with the
right hand raised high in the air in a moment of Im-
mense delight at having caught sight of land after
watching through the early dawn of morning, strong
In his belief that land was there, the telescope being
held in the left as no longer neceasary. The fine
head is most expressive and characteristic of the
keen observer and d,untleks discoverer, in the
massive brow with deep furrows at the temple
and strongly moulded nose and chin. There is
no atronger paint in the statue than this preserva-
tion of lib enss on such a colossal scale; and so .juet
are the proportions of the figure in the torsi() and the
limbs that it looks the hero without baing a giant.
The dress, which is the well-known naval uniform of

the day, with the open-breasted, broad-tailed coat, the
long flap waistcoat, and the knee-breeches, with shoes,
i 3 remarkable for good work, falling to the figure
naturally and not ungratefully, the gold lane being to
some extent represented by a lighter-coloured bronze.
But all these points of detail are quite unobtrusive
and subservient completely to the noble air of brave
self-confidence expressed in the intellectual coun-
tenance, the broad and vigorous frame, and the general
action of the figure."
The Governor gave an account of Cook's life and
services and eharacter, and said in the course of his
address :—" What this stout-hearted man did for his
own country and for the world outside it in the last
ten years of his life was enough for many a lifetime,
and may be briefly summed up as follows
"'He sailed three times round the world. He dis-
covered the Society Islands, the Sandwich Islands,
the Friendly Islands, the New Hebrides, and almost
numberless small islands in the South Pacific. He
added greatly to our knowledge of New Zealand and
Van Diemen's Land; he discovered and explored the
eastern coast of Australia for over 2,000 miles; he re-
solved the great problem of a southern continent; and
though he failed to find a north-east passage, his ex-
plorations contributed greatly to our acquaintance
with that part of the world and its inhabitants. In
the course of these vcyages he discovered and adopted
a system for preserving the health of seamen during
long sojourns at sea, which will transmit his name to
feature ages among the friends and benefactors of man-
kind.
"It is of the utmost importance that the rising
generation here should be brought up to admire and
imitate true nobility of character, and it would, I bs-
lieve, be impossible to set before them as an example
a higher human standard than that of the earnest
modest, brave, self-denying, just, humane, and God-
fearing man to whose enterprise we owe the discovery
of this land and to whose memory a statue is this day
about to be unveiled in our midst. His name and
fame will be remembered as long as the English lan-
guage and history shall continue in the earth."