ANTARCTIC EXPEDITIONS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 475, 6 April 1909, Page 4

ANTARCTIC EXPEDITIONS.

WHY LYTTELTON WAS CHOSEN AS HEADQUARTERS. (BY TELEGIUI'II—riIESS ASSOCIATION.} Chrlstchurch, April 5. Speaking at tho Niinrod banquet the Hon. C. C. Bowcn explained how Lyttolton came to bo chosen as tho headquarters of tho Discovery and Nimrod expeditions. Ho said that the credit was duo to tho Royal Geographical Society, and he himself had accidentally had something to do with it. The arrangement at first was that the Discovery expedition should start from Melbourne. Somo of tho persons interested, however, felt that it would bo a mistake to establish tho headquarters so far fram tho pole, when a suitablo placo was available much nearer. He took it upon himself to write to the president of tlio Royal Geographical Society, and stated the position. He spoko to members of tho Lyttelton Harbour Board, who offered free docking and other concessions, and the result was that the society sent tho Discovery to Lyttelton. He related the incident to show on what small hinges affairs of that nature depend. Ho then spoke to Sir Joseph Ward, who was then a member of the Government, but not Prime Minister, and ho offered to have tho sum of £2000 placed on tho Estimates if the expedition cr.mo to New Zealand. The arrangement was completed, and the Dominion had reaped "the benefit of it ever since, as the expeditions had been a great education to the young people aud a source of interest to all. Referring to the old Antarctic continent, Dr. L. Cockayne sr.id that more than sixty years ago Sir Joseph Hooker, who was still alive, announced that a portion of New Zealand's flora and fauna was Antarctic in origin, and as tho only solution.of tho problem as to how that came'about Sir Joseph described a hypothetical continent which occupied what was now tho deep sea and of which New Zealand's southern islands, notably the Snares, and the Auckland and Campbell Islands, probably formed a part, There was only, one by which plants and animals would be likely to go from New Zealand to South America, and that was over an Antarctic continent, but it seemed altogother improbable that they would live under the conditions of tho frost-bound land. It was therefore believed that the continent had once had a milder climate. As a matter of fact, Lieut. Shackleton's expedition, by its discovery of coal far south, had brought back with it from tho snow and ice the evidence of the warm climate for which scientists had been looking. Dr. C. Coleridge Farr gave an interesting history of some of tho instruments used in tho work of the magnetic observatory in the Christchurch Public Gardens. They had been sent to Melbourne by the Royal ■ Society, which had lent them to him. When Borchgrevinck mado arrangements for his Antarctic expedition ho approached thc ; Royal Society with a view to securing the instruments, but found that Dr. Farr had been before him. They were in tho Christchurch Observatory _ at present, but since Borchgrevinck's time they had been all over New Zealand, and .hoy' ha.d been with Lieut. Shackleton's expedition to tho south. Before, that tho Jackson-Harmsworth expedition had taken them on its north polar expeditions, and thoy had been used on the work of tho Boundary Commission between Cana.da and tho United States. They had therefore seen sorvice in widely separated parts of the globe.