SIR MALCOLM CAMPBELL’S ACHIEVEMENT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 59, 12 March 1935, Page 4

SIR MALCOLM CAMPBELL’S ACHIEVEMENT

<ANCE again Sir Malcolm Campbell has created a new world land-speed record. Having reduced the miles per hour by four, he has shown that British engineering and his own capacity as a speed driver are paramount in the world to-day in this field of activity. It is hard to declare which category this activity belongs. It is not sport, because it is hardly competitive. It is not a business, because there are no profits to be had. lhe work escapes classification. It is certainly a glorious adventure. It is the effort of man to push back his own limitations. This prompts men Io do things for which there is no reward that is adequate. The explorer of the South Polar regions comes back to a mountain of debt. The mountaineers who climb the treacherous slopes of Mount Everest can bring back little in their hands which they may afterwards turn into cash, while even public applause is negligible. Yet it is true that these men do not seek popular applause, nor do they seek wealth, 'lhe call of adventure is too strong for them. “What a man dares do can he done,” is their motto, and so they go out to the limits of human capacity and dare to try and extend man’s mastery of his environment. Pioneers in all fields are inspiring to the general body of men, and even when they fail to reach their immediate objectives they perhaps do their greatest good by providing the inspiration to the mass of mankind.