The Hawera Star. TUESDAY, MAY 1, 1928. ADVENTURE IN A PROSAIC AGE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 1 May 1928, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

TUESDAY, MAY 1, 1928. ADVENTURE IN A PROSAIC AGE.

Delivered every evening by 5 o'olook in Hawera. Manair,. Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham. Hangatoki. Kaponga. Alton ? Hurleyville Patea, Waverley. Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai, Meremere. Prasei Boad, and Ararata.

In these days, when it seems to be the intention to bind every activity of man with bonds of legislation, and when what the -law fails to impose the bylaw exacts, the career of a man like Captain Wilkins reads like a chapter out of an old tale of adventure. From Northern Australia and tropical islands well off the steamer routes, to the Antarctic, from Balkan wars to Arctic wastes, this intrepid explorer -drives his way, seemingly not content unless wresting from Nature some of her secrets or blazing a trail somewhere. The difficulties that confronted him in the Arctic might well have daunted any man, but he is one of that select company that revels jin pitting human resource against all that would impede progress. There are some men who cannot accept -the conventions and limitations- of civilisation. What lies just beyond the horizon has for them an irresistible call, and the furthest frontier is usually their goal. They provide for the average citizen a -spas-h of colour in what often appears to be a somewhat dreary world. They are the buccaneers of to-day, always ready to venture after the unknown and, whatever it may bring, to greet, it with a cheer. They seem to find -high adventure everywhere. And the Dominion- has produced its quota, although, for the most part, little has -been heard of them. There are two of them in Alesopotamia, two in Burma, and one, at least, in China, away from the coast. Still another has spent his life somewhere beyond the Indian frontier, doing work about which he is very uncommunicative. They come back to civilisation at intervals, -enjoy it for a while, and then the spirit moves them to be off again. Of their adventures they say little, not, one imagines, through any lack of courtesy, but simply because wandering and adventure are their normal lives. They cannot stand the common round; for them happiness lies far from the haunts of men. Nomads among nomads, they may be serving the Empire in some way, perhaps in some very valuable way; but at any rate they are living their lives usefully. We should be grateful to the Wilkinses and the Shackletons and the Seotts, for their journeyings have thrilled -all who can appreciate the courage required, the persistence demanded and the spirit essential for these adventures.