USE OF THE SOUTH POLE.

Golden Bay Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1, 2 June 1910, Page 2

USE OF THE SOUTH POLE.

Many people want to know what is the use of Antarctic exploration. They may admit that the Frozen | South provides an admirable field for the exhibition of pluck and en- ! durance, hut, beyond that,, they cannot see what purpose is to be served by risking valuable lives in surveying what its earliest discoverers named the Land of Desolation.

It might be pointed out that Australia would not have been located until much later than it was, and would probably not be a British Commonwealth to-day, but for the glamour of that mysterious “Terra Australia Incognita” which, from the sixteenth centur# onwards, lured so many daring adventurers towards the South Pole. MINERAL WEALTH.

But, that being settled, it is asked why persist in exploring further within a region where human beings are never likely to make permanent settlements ? Twenty, or even ten years ago, that argument had some

force. Now it has very little, because, in the interval, industrial development has been shown to be possible within the Arctic Circle under conditions as severe as those of the Antarctic. Modern science has enabled a large industrial population to settle in the Yukon ; in Spitsbergen a colony of colliers exists in comfort through the long Arctic nights ; in the extreme north of Scandinavia still larger settlements of iron miners live and work throughout the Arctic winter. In the last-named area, as well as in the Yukon, railways run within the Arctic circle, whilst others impinge upon it in the portion of Siberia which is held to be the cold'sst region on earth. Given sufficient inducement in the way of mineral wealth or otherwise, what has been done in these places can be done in the Antarctic. Dr. Bruce, leader of the recent Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, has given it as his opinion that the day will come when there will be great industrial development there. ASTRONOMICAL PURPOSES.

There are other, and perhaps higher utilities to be served by the attainment of the South Pole. Not until it is reached will astronomers he able to ascertain the exact distance of the earth from the sun, or, indeed, the precise position of the former in the solar system. Calculations bearing upon these points depend upon the earth's form, which, so far as the Poles are concerned, can meantime only be surmised. An actual survey will settle many questions at present in doubt, and may conceivably reveal movements in progress which may prove of momentous interest to mankind.

It is fairly well kflown that the Argentine Government has for some years past maintained a meteorological station, manned by Scotsmen, in the South Orkneys. One result of the observations made there, within the limits of Antarctica, is

an indication that, the weather throughout the whole double continent of America, and even in Europe, is "manufactured" within the region about the South Pole. With an observatory there, and others round its circumference correlated with a similar system in the Arctic, it is possible that weather forecasts might be issued several months in advance, to the steadying of the world’s wheat supplies. AN UNKNOWN POWER.

Both the North and South magnetic Poles have now been rendered accessible, and, as a result, v/e are 1 iely ere long to know more of me mysterious force affecting both ;

,b• ‘ t much more than that depends upon the location of the geographiI cal Poles. The latter are associated, in some way not yet understood,, j with the strange phenomenon exhibited in the austral and boreal guroras manifestations apparently linked with the tremendous electrical outbursts associated with sun-spots. There are scientists who hold that j these auroras are merely the out- ! ward indications of a power which may yet be commaruleere-d for the service of man —a theory which may be either proved, or otherwise, when the South Pole is reached. A TEMPERATE ANTARCTICA. Besides all these problems, explo- ! ration lias already shown that, at i some remote epoch, the South Polar ! region is covered with luxuriant vegetation. Not only so, but recent observation has shown that the ice lis once more retreating from it ; ' the great, ice barrier, since Sir James | Ross first saw it in the earlier J ’forties of last century, is reported |to have receded from ten to twenty ’ miles, and the coast line was so aljtered that Balloon Inlet, so named iby Captain Scott in 1901, had enI tirely vanished when the Shackleton expedition visited it early in 1908, with the intention of landing there. It may he that Antarctica is on the way to become temperate. If so, jiow far such a change is likely to [ affect other portions of the globe, ,we are unlikely to learn until after the South Pole is attained.— "Scraps,"