WELL OVERDUE

Southland Times, Issue 19897, 16 June 1926, Page 12

WELL OVERDUE

JOURNEY OF 12 YEARS.LETTER GOES TO NORTH POLE AND BACK. “There are times when people complain when they receive letters through the post which are years overdue. However, one arrived in Christchurch yesterday twelve years overdue,” says Saturday night’s Sun; “but no complaint will be made about that,” reports the Evening Star’s correspondent. “As a matter of fact, the people concerned had forgotten about it. You see, this particular letter has been to the North Pole. It has a fascinating history, though where it has been and how it returned are matters for conjecture. Certainly this letter has had a most adventurous career. “In 1914, when the famous polar explorer, Amundsen, was in New Zealand with the Fram, he offered to take letters to the North Pole, where he said they would be posted and returned to the owners. A Christchurch woman gave Amundsen a letter, and it started on its twelve years’ journey. Apparently it w’as transferred from the Fram to the Maud, the ship which drifted for seven years in the ice of the polar seas, and returned to Seattle in August of last year, where she was arrested for debt. There is also a theory put forward that perhaps Amundsen kept it in his possession until his adventurous journey by airplane last year. “On the stamp of the letter is the word “Polhavet,” and the date of its posting, 14/2/14. Printed on one side are the words, ‘This letter will be carried by the Fram across the Polar Sea, and afterwards conveyed by post to the addressee.’ “What a story of howling blizzards, mountainous ice packs, midnight sun, and the endurance of man this letter could tell!” -