SOUTH POLE RACE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 68, 21 March 1910, Page 9

SOUTH POLE RACE.

%'■ •—" —' "1 s SCO! 1 DEFENCE OF PEART. ft J ' . I I ifil/DB OF WHITE EVIDENCE. Wi ffliom' Onr Special Correspondent). -:'<S j-j LONDON, February 11. Hi -iv t)TOspect of a sporting race beKβ, & England and America for the raj/ W" -pniar championship has done a *» . deal to revive the interest of the IS Sis!** 15 ? in Captain Scott's Antarc--1 ;ti rlSain Sc ott himself is naturally do--11l . V- best to foster the spirit of inter- — ml " S nl rivalry, for he is still a ccmsidr> Hramoinit short of the total sum HI • ed for the purposes of bis expedi- "** to an interview Captain La, -ff t wanted to a "Yorkshire Post" re'm -mt&tive, the present financial posiil D P 8 is this- The captain estimates '.| Sail told £50,000 will be required. SSI irs-ard this amount the British GovernI" 1 3 (j, as given £20,000, and £12,000 1 f Pfjjeen subscribed by the public. He a ■ iL- that Australasia will contribute I I leaving £8,000 still to be raised 1 1 it Home. I i sjie gallant captain is at present makI I mV" efforts to interest the scholars at I übSo , schools in his venture, and has I Steady received a fair amount of supi «6rt from the scholars from these instiI tations. Yesterday, for example, the 1 scholars °£ the Bootham Friends School, I it York, presented him with a cheque I I fjfifeieiitly large to purchase a dog- ! jledire and one dog for his expedition, a , n i°ir/- -worth of dog biscuits. The I tled r e is to have a plate attached to it, j I leanng the name of the school, and the j I do" Mo he christened John Bright, in | '?. 'memory of the eminent politician -who 11 iras a scholar at Bootham. §1 iiilthe course of an interesting leeSi the 'boys on the forthcoming ex- i [In the course Scott interesting the' ftie to the 'boys on the forthcoming ex- i sedition, Captain Scott explained the \$ jetted-of.-travel he proposed to adopt ~S- after reaching the ice pack, stating that, S {our of the fittest men would be left to ' Ui sake the.last journey. He expressed a| SI lope ' that the expedition might get ; '■ 1 tee before Peary's, adding that he -I ihoughfc that, in defence of his fellow-! i: I traveller, he ought to explain that [ .; J whilst it had been said that Peary took *7.1j0 iriite man with him to the North ■SI-Pole, , but sent him back, he really could tfij do nothing else, because he travelled; i-vTl.jith'ihree Eskimos and one white man, Sγ and when he sent the Eskimos back, he •Sril-wu bound to send the white man as I their leader. jj' Therefore, he had no choice but to I Had Bartlett back somewhere before : h reaching " the final goal. A certain ="i amount of injustice had been done to * I Peary in this respect, and he thought ■ 1 it would have been better if he had orn ganised the party so that he could have '=i got another white man there, because is! tie evidence of two white men was naturally more readily received than evi|l dence of a single man. ti Captain Scott added that he proposed ; I fiat in each of ■ his parties there shotild ■ Is four whites, so that the world would f 1 lure the evidence of three to support i 1 the evidence of the leader, and he bell feed that no fabrications could be sup- : i! sited by three white witnesses, f| i » THE POLE'S THE THING. •I ■&. Edward- A. Wilson, who was one of 4I ! the-efieers of the Discovery, under Cap- .': J fain Scott, in the National Antarctic ex--1I petition from 1901 to 1904, and who has I -ten selected to again accompany his old i commander in the expedition of 1910, jf lectured in the Portman Kooms, Bakerll: ftreet, this week on "Life in the Antarc- § tie." If he did not reveal any of the I secrets of the coming enterprise, the I lecturer threw much light upon it, its tl: purpose, and its difficulties by the ex:r. periences of the first venture; and he I .spoke in a spirit of confidence as to its Jl^success. I "What Captain Scott means to do," ho ■I'; laid, "is to get the South Geographical I j Pole. He means to make a straight, cerI}, tain journey. When we get there wo I may be-able to welcome Peary. (Laughis ter.) Other incidental journeys will bo l> Bade for scientific purposes, but the I a main thing this time is to be the Pole. I {Everyone realises that the Pole has to be Reached, by someone, whether it be by j Englishmen or the representatives of any ■ other nation, before other expeditions I can. hope to tackle the many scientific problems which are awaiting solution 1 ill around the unknown limit of this £ great continent—a continent probably iilarger than Australia, all under ice." : Dr. Wilson mentioned the fact that : the great ice-covering around the An- ': tarctic Circle which covered this continent was gradually becoming smaller, md Captain Scott, when he again reached the great Ross ice barrier, would, i-probably be able to approach much •; nearer to the South than in his last expedition. The ice was breaking up at J the outer edge much faster than it was ; Bent down from the Polar region, and .:' would probably in the course of ages disS appear. NBfROD TO GO A-WHALING. Sir Ernest Shackleton, the explorer, ■ ■when in Dundee the other day, made :: exhaustive inquiries as to the feasibility i : ot- sending the famous. Antarctic ship TJimrod to the whale fishing. He interviewed several of the Dundee whaling captains as well as those interested financially i n the industry, says a message : ; from Edinburgh. According to the infori. mation received it would require about £2500 to fit out the Nimrod. The Vessel j '" in first-class condition for such ■a ; ■feature, only requiring oil tanks and j , >haleboats. Provisional arrangements j toe also made for securing the services j {if a Dundee skipper. Whaling is no j novelty for exploration ships. The Terra j T ova, in which Captain Scott is going > ito the South Pole (or as near as he can ■ : get); is the largest and strongest of the { ;.:old Scottish whalers. Built at Dundee in 1884, the Terra Nova has been described as the best ship ever launched for ■.-the Greenland w.hale trade. COLONIAL AID. ii. In introducing • the discussion which followed Professor Gregory's lecture to »he . Royal Geographical Society on Aus- | tralia this week, Major Darwin said he i desired to take that opportunity of ex- : Pressing, the appreciation of the Society j I for the work Australia and New Zealand I .had; done towards assisting British ex-! ■ petitions. Without the co-operation of i ? *?e. Southern Commonwealth, success ! ; would be .far less probable. . ~ ' i yiv Commander Peary, according to the i <-newspapers, was about to undertake an: I expedition to the South Pole. That was ! r a form of competition at which they re- i I joiced. , The American people, if once! I started, were apt to do the work in hand ! S sSflw 117 ' and it was therefore neces-! sary that the British Empire should not i <k«r7 ard in SU ch bold, enterprise. |