EXPLORATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 6176, 6 April 1907, Page 5

EXPLORATION.

AND NATIONAL ADVERTISING.

Reports of noted geographical achievements follow clo«ely upon each others’ heels nowadays. Wo have scarcely, so to speak, warmed un to Commander Deary when a message reaches us from Sven" Hedin of Stockholm, Thibet, aud the Pamir. In Europe exploration at present enjoys the patronage of the

“verv best people.” A royal lecturer m tho person of the Duke of tho Abnizzi addresses royal audiences in Romo ami London on his latest work in Africa, and King Edward VTI. rises to' move the customary vote of thanks to the speaker of the evening. Tho French Academy of Sciences assembles to consider the report of tho Princo of Monaco's discoveries in Spitsbergen. From Belgium ~e aro informed that a national expedition is soon to bo despatched to tho Antarctic, whence another groat national expedition, the British, under Captain Scott, lias only recently returned, , , If to the Duke of the Abrnzzi and the Prince of Monaco we add tho Duke of Orleans, who in 1905 added his name to tho list of Arctic explorers by sailing his Bclgica no ihe east coast of Greenland to a “ farthest north” at ~Bdeg. I6min. wo face the interesting fact thru princely blood is forging to the front in u field of commendable .activity. In a sense, kings, thrones, and principalities have always been zealous in encouraging geographical enterprise, from old llatasu, who despatched her Egyptian admiral for spices to the laud of Punt, through another queen who sent her admiral westward in search of souls more precious than spice©, and Prince Henry the Navigator, to Leopold of Belgium sending Stanley to Africa, and Oscar 11. of Sweden, who ha© backed bven Hedin’s venture© iu Central Asia, But it i© one thing to unroll unknown continents bv deputy, like Mark Twain's ; climbing the Matterhorn through a telescope, and another to assume the actual danger© and hardships of exploration. This oiu- modern princes of discovery have begun to do, as admirably exemplified iu the case of Luigi of the house of Savoy. He be.© brought to the work not only the courage and devotion of —s crusading ancestors, but modesty and a spirit of noble©**© oblige which ho© allowed his companions to . enjoy their full share of the labour and tne resulting glory. i Commander 'Peary ha© repeatedly appealed to our sense of patriotism in tho matter of the conquest of the Pole, The Game fervent national- seustiments characterise the Duke of the Abruzzi's speeches, it is valuable work, thi© sliding and floating and climbing, painstaking, disinterested, scientific work, but it is also work for the glory of il re and la patria. Nor is the feeling one that we can call mere patriotic vanity. With it, consciously or unconsciously, dwells the conviction that such triumphs of the flag redound to the material welfare of the fatherland by enhancing its dignity and spreading abroad its name among xi.. x; XT' ;_ii„ j _r

the smaller states or the countries that, by themselves, would not rank as firstclass Powers. Th© empires of the earth can hold a place in the first rank by armies and many ships; tho weaker me -‘bevs must seek to gain eminence Thus, to go back to Italy once more, we cannot see how one can read Commander Cagui’s account of the famous, dash for 86dcg. 33min., so modestly and simply told, without gaining in admiration for a Mediterranean race that could cope successfully with the terrors of the Arctic. Anglo-Saxon ideas as to Latin "softness” should vanish before such proof, and though the initiated may have known before this of the intrepid industry of the Italian day labourer and the skill of Italian engineers, professional men, and scientists, it needed a hairraising performance to proclaim the fact to the world. Or, take the case of tho final quarrel between Norway and Sweden. It was a curious coincidence that tho best-known champion on either side, so far as the outside world was concerned, should have been a noted explorer, Sven Ilodin for Sweden Fridtjof Nansen for Norway. Had Sweden been able to supplement her Strindberg and Hedin with a first-class chemist

, and a leading historical naiutcr, the might have stood a winning chance. I Some such conviction of the vp 1 ! geographical -1 iog medium undoubtemy underlies a vcn- | lure like the proposed Belgian Antarctic ! expedition. Belgium needs no colonies 1 even if they are only icc and sca-waU?r; she has all the difficulties she cares for at present with Congo and with the King. But Belgium, is an aggressive, a "live'* country, and it cannot fight because it is small and neutralised. Moreover. it has vast manufacturing intwCols and largo stores of capital to invest. < and as a capitalist and a producer il needs advertising. A signal coup in the scientific world would increase Belgian prestige in Russia, in Japan, in other parts of the Ear Bast. To her the Antarctic Circle is a vast Hackensack Meadows, on which she has sent her devoted sons to smear in letters a degree of latitude wide, “ Use Charleroi uoal.” or “Katanga Rubbei —the Best/' or “ Kaffirs Cry for Liege Refrigerators." There is no intention here of imputing selfish motives to a scientific undertaking by which all the world must profit. The point made is only that in this form of activity national well-being socks to realize itself no less than in actual war lor customers and colonics, Rich men in our own country have not been slow in following tho example set by royal explorers of Europe. Jt is a blessed thing to own a roomy steamyacht. It is more blessed to clap a party of scientists ami photographers on horn’d and run them un to the Behring Sea in summer, where they map and sound and botanize and zoologiso for the benefit of j human knowledge, ami to tho greater | glory of tho owner of the boat. Jt is a ( sport that can never bo vulgarised, and it appeals to primal instincts. We have no monsters now whom one con fight except the trusts, and no swamps to drain except politics. Only the unmapped ice-field, tho unsealed mountain, and the uncrossed desert hold forth opportunities for the spirit of the conquistador,—New York “ Post,”