ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION

Grey River Argus, 2 September 1908, Page 4

ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION

Dr. Coughtrey, who recently suggested in our columns that New Zealand people should show that they take a practical interest in L : cu :■-. and his confreres at the : Antaictic, has; received, a letter -from •Whangarei, which is of, sufficient interest, to publish, v It- is as follows';— (.."Since I was a boy Arctic ; exploration .has always interested me, and I icmember well the visit of Sir James Ro&s and Sir Joseph Hooker -to the ' Ba/ of Islands. ''Being at the Waimate School, the only one-. then in New Zealand, I did not see • the ships, but the 'previously named gentlemen were the guests of the head master, the Rev Richard Taylor. I was one of the boys told off to accompany them into the woods in search of. land shells and plants. One of the boys asked Sir James Ross if he had seen the co ..tinent said to have been discovered by

the American Antarctic Expedition. He replied "Yes, we sailed over it." This must have been a stock saying of his, as I have seen the same words in a magazine article on Antarctic exploration. I think Captain Scott's •Voyage of the Discovery' a very interesting work, and hope that the present expedition will be still more successful than he was.— l remain, yours faithfully, Robert Mair, eldest son of one of the first pioneers of New Zealand, and one of the first generations of New Zealand born."