POLAR INSTITUTE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3775, 20 July 1926, Page 25

POLAR INSTITUTE.

CAPTAIN SCOTT’S MEMORY. LONDON, June 2. The inauguration of the Polar Research Institute, in meraorw of Captain Scott, has taken place at Cambridge. i)r Nansen w&e unfortunately unable to attend. At the institute there is on view a collection of polar records and travelling gear. The pictorial aide is represented by watercolour 'pictures of the Franklin Search Expeditions presented by Dr F H. H. Giulleruard, of the 1873 Nares expedition, presented by Lady Markham Knel, and by a comprehensive series of photographic enlargements of Scott's last expedition, taken and presented by Mr H. G. Ponting.' At the Vice-Chancellor'B dinner there were present, among others:—Lieut.-Commander Hilton Young, M.P., and Mrs Young (Lady Scott), and some 22 polar men, representing practically all the important British expeditions back to that of 1875, the senior mafi present being Admiral Sir George Egerton, of the Narea expedition. Lieut.-Commander Young made it clear that the aim of the institute was not merely to commemorate the great men of the past, but to oe a source of practical information and an inspiration to the adventurers of the future. He referred to the munificent gift of the trustees of the Scott Memorial Fund of £12,000, which had enabled the institute to Ic founded, and pointed out that it needed but another £IO,OOO to erect a building worthy of the cause and the name it bore, and he hoped that such a sum would be forthcoming. The immediate aims of the institute were outlined by the director (Mr Frank Debenkam), who hoped that it would lead to increased co-operation and continuity in polar work, by providing a centre for information and for working out the results of expeditions. A beginning had been made in the establishment of a polar library, a museum of polar gear, technical and otherwise, a collection of maps, diaries, and original records, as well as drawings and photographs. The acoommpdstion available was already inadequate, and he hoped that funds would soon permit of the memorial building being started, an essential part of which would be research rooms in which the polar scientists of the future would be able to work, surrounded by the dais of the past, and in touch with the university laboratories for their technical work.