A SPIRIT THAT IS NOT YET PROHIBITED

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12422, 16 April 1926, Page 6

A SPIRIT THAT IS NOT YET PROHIBITED

What is to be gained by these risky expeditions across the Arctic wastes? Ostensibly, Amundsen and Wilkins are both led on by the pure, white light of science. We are given to understand that by flying high up the airmen may be able to look down through the ice, and ascertain if there is “land” below, or only—more ice. Such explanations of the explorers’ motives, we believe (and are glad to believe), are the veriest humbug, designed to deceive (although they do not really deceive) a world which likes to think itself “practical.’’ We suspect, too, that those fine-spirited Americans who are financing both expeditions may have required some such explanation, to satisfy their business instincts. The force which carries on these expeditions is the pure spirit of adventure. It is that spirit which sent Francis Drake round the world, and Tasman find Cook into the uncharted seas to the south, and Ross Smith through the unknown air to Australia. Reckless men, all of them, and condemned by the common-sense folk of their time! But do the common-sense folje forget them, or, remembering, regret ? . There is not a young New Zealander worth his salt who would not be with Amundsen or Wilkins if he could, and not an old one but wishes he were young enough. Such men, whatever their nationality, are the kin of us all. We all cannot be with them: we must enjoy their'adventure, as we are forced to enjoy so many of our adventures, by proxy. And if the day ever comes when every man, his aptitudes carefully ascertained at school, is placed in a job by a bewhiskered Government, and is content to work from nine to five for forty years until superannuation, and the spirit of adventure is frowned at, and there are text-books to explain why it is wrong—it will be time for the next Ice Age to descend on a world grown too good (and too bored) to live.