LIEUT. SHACKLETON'S ACHIEVEMENTS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13921, 27 March 1909, Page 4

LIEUT. SHACKLETON'S ACHIEVEMENTS.

A f'l or an absence of fifteen months in the Antarctic regions Lieutenant Shackleton and his ship's company of explorers have returned safely to New Zealand,! after an extremely adventurous journey. To the general public the most interesting feature of Lieutenant Shackleton 's achievements will probably be the ifact that he beat Captain Scott's "furthest south" record by 066 miles, and actually hoisted the Union

•T.ick within 97 miles of the South Pole. The man of science will, however, find in the records wrested from Nature's most impenetrable regions much matter of extreme interest and value. The meteorological observations will prove of practical value in the forecasting of the weather at observatories iv New Zealand and

Australia. The science of zoology will be enriched by the specimens obtained by the expedition, that of geology by the accurate knowledge gained of the configuration of the globe around its southern pole. The discovery of coal and limestone measitres is of extreme interest, as Professor David says, as showing a former mild climate in that region, and no doubt geologists be able to deduce important conclusions from these discoveries. Probably most people, on reading the long accounjt of the expedition yesterday, thought or remarked, what is the good of it all? Why should men endure such privations and court death in such a manner? For although the whole expedition returned in good health, several of the men came near to losing their lives, and most of them had to undergo great privations. Three of the party only by a remarkable piece of good fortune escaped being carried away on a drifting ice floe on one occasion, while five others had similar luck on another. Had Lieutenant Shackle ton continued his southerly march a few hours longer it is probable that neither he nor the men with him. would ever have reached the ship again. When jhe accompanied Captain Scott on the Discovery expedition Lieutenant Shackleton nearly succumbed to the privations he was called upon to endure. Yet he was ready and eager to make another attempt to reach the South Pole. What is the impelling force ? Not altogether the desire to serve science. Rather the love of adventure — one of the finest traits in our national character, and the thought occurs, what will inspire this characteristic when full light has been turned on to Darkest Africa, when the "Roof of the World" is traversed by a railway, when the Arctic and Antarctic regions have been , completely mapped out and we have photographs of the elevated plateau which marks the lociu'on of the South Pole? Even il science gained nothing from these expeditions they would serve a useful purpose in helping to maintain that love of adventure which has made our race \Lc greatest colonising lace of all time. But Lieutenant Rha^leiou and bie compan ions have not only shown the world a remarkable example of wliot human endurance, added to enthusiasm, is capable of, but Ihey have also brought to the aid of astronomers, v geologists, zoologists., and other scientists some vex-y important data upon which they will "be able to build valu-

aWe information as to the shape of our globe and the cruises of various natural phenomena at present but ill understood, ;