THE SOUTH POLE,"

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7231, 18 October 1901, Page 3

THE SOUTH POLE,"

A MYSTERIOUS SPOT. TRAVELLING TOWARDS NEW ZEALAND. In a paper read by him before the Natives' Association last- evening. Mr C. Coleridge Fair referred to th^c attempts; to locate the South Magnetic Pole. He described how, in 1840, Gauss, who was one of the most profound mathematicians tlio world lias known, and after -whom the German- tfbijj in the present expeditici: has beeu named, was the first to indicate «i spot where lie supposed the mysterious Pole should 'be-. On the geographical maps published for the benefit of the general public the South Pole is placed in the centre of the Antarctic Circle. Gauss-, however, placed the Pole Jar north of that point, and east of Victoria Land. Ross followed, and his observations enabled .him to assign the Pole a position some distance south, of that given by the calculations of Gauss. The result of Borchgrevink's observations in 1899 show that since the time of lto.ss the Pole has been moving in a north-wes-terly direction, and that explorer lias fixed a third spot for the Pole. The results of Mr Fair's observation? in. New Zealand, drawn from an entirely different direction, hare led him. to coufinn Borchgrevink's opinion, and he also is of opinion that the Pole is< moving in a. northerly direction, towards New Zealand. Geologists tell us that, away down in the Older Pliocene period, a good many millions of years ago, New Zealand had a glacial period of its own. Is it possible that another one is approaching?