THE ANTARCTIC DISASTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15236, 25 February 1913, Page 8

THE ANTARCTIC DISASTER.

RESOLUTIONS .OP SYMPATHY.

A resolution was passed at the annual meeting of the Newspaper Proprietors' Association last night regarding the- Scott disaster. It was to the effect that the members of the association placed on record the loss sustained by the death of Captain Scott and his comrades, and desired to express its deepest sympathy with the relative of the lost explorers in their great bereavement. •

It was decided to forward copies of the resolution to the Royal Geographical Society and to the relatives of the deceased members of the expedition.

Feeling reference to the Antarctic disaster was made at the annual meeting of the Auckland Institute last evening by the president, Professor H. W. Segar. Although it was rather late for sympathetic resolutions, said Professor Segar, the institute could not pass over the great disaster. Captain Scott's expedition had been by no means one started for the purpose of achieving notoriety. Its aims were essentially scientific, and to these aims the members of the expedition always gave first place, and ultimately achieved. The one great point of sadness was the fact that Captain Scott and the gallant comrades who perished with him had not lived to enjoy the fame which they had so gallantly won. '"'The way in which the'members of the expedition carried out their concluded the professor, " will, I am sure, be a lesson for us and our children, and renew our confidence in our race to carry out the greater problems of life." On tho motion of Piofessor Segar, it was decided that —" The Auckland Institute desires to express its profound regret at the disastrous loss of Captain Scott and his party during their return from the South Pole. It wishes also to state its admiration of, the unswerving heroism of the party, which has left an example of devotion to duty and loyalty to one another which will endure for all time. It further desires to record its sympathy with the relatives of the deceased in their bitter and irreparable loss."

SCOTT'S LIFE PURPOSE. Reference was made to the disaster to Captain Scott and his party in the Antarctic by Mr. Evelyn Wrench, organiser of the Overseas Club, in the course of his farewell address in Auckland last evening. After referring in sympathetic, terms to Mrs. Scott, the lecturer said that for 14 years he had the privilege of Captain Scott's friendship. " Some two or three months before Captain Scott sailed on his southward journey," said Mr. Wrench, " I had lunch with him in London. Just before parting, I remember his saying, with that look of determination which all of us see in the faces of men two or three times in our lives, ' I mean to reach the South Pole before I die.' Captain Scotb achieved his life's purpose. But ho did more. He gave a message to the British peoples, which, I believe, will be remembered for all time."