LIEUTENANT SHACKLETON

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 470, 31 March 1909, Page 8

LIEUTENANT SHACKLETON

A DAY IN WELLINGTON. AN IMPRESSION AND INTERVIEW. Lieutenant Shackleton was in Wellington yesterday, but it was not easy to have quiet speech of him. After a silent vastness, where degrees of latitude take the place of feet, it is disconcerting to a man to be assiduously "lionised" in a close jumble of his fellowmen. Also, whero every spirit has been bent up, during sunless months, to one tremendous object, it is difficult to divert the energies all at once to a score of lesser tasks. And Lieutenant Shackleton, having not yet rested from his explorer's fatigues, is labouring like a Prime Minister without his secretaries beneath a weight of smaller cares ajid worries. There is his book, to be published while the uews is piping hot; pressmen to be put off politely at evory turn, lost the book should starve and perish; telegrams of congratulation and inquiry from every corner of the world to bo answered; the flora and fauna of the Antarctic, or as much of it as the explorers could bring away, to be parcelled out among a dozen hungry museums; and how much more to do only the harassed hero of the expedition knows. Alexander did not weep becauso there were no more worlds to conquer. _ Ho wept for the petty, irritating complications which his victories made for him to unravel. A Restless Day. Prom Lieutenant Shacklcton's arrival by the Mararoa yesterday morning, till,he left again in the evening for the south, hardly a moment was his own. The "cloud of witnesses" by whom he was attended made it difficult for him to snatch five minutes for a Dominion representative, and he was plainly restless while he talked. The strangers' room of the Wellington Club is narrow compass after Polar wastes. Mr. Shackleton paced to and fro, as though he felt the confinement. Also, he talked hastily and jerkily, as though unwilling to expatiate ° n a simple tale. It is easier to discover loles than to recount one's own experiences for_ the twentieth time. The object of his visit?

\es, tbat was another matter. He had come especially to-see the Prime Minister (pir Joseph Ward), and thank him for all the help and good wishes that had gone out to tho expedition from the Dominion. The greatest appreciation was felt for these. He had explained to the Premier, also, how tho New Zealand museums would receive a share of tho scientific trophies secured,, adding that some of the scientific men of this Dominion were not only, prophets in their own country—as it is to bo hoped they arc—but men of European reputation. It was also stated that a sealed cylinder containing tho special set of all the New Zealand stamps given to Lieutenant Shackleton for that purpose, had been duly lodged "Furthest South,' giving New Zealanders a stake in those inhospitable domains. •

Plans for the Future. The leader of the expedition would not say anything about its achievements—enough had been already said—or its hardships— they were of no importance now. Tho pressman hinted that after the Discovery expedition, much more was heard of tho terrible effects of cold, the gnawings of hunger on tho long sledge journeys, and other sufferings. Lieutenant Shackleton ceased his pacing for a moment. "Oh, the sufferings? What do they matter now they'ro over, so long as the work was done?" Would he attempt the Polo again? Well, ho had had no time to thiriic of that. On another occasion, . the explorer stated that if ho did renew/tho attempt at any time, it-would be from the other side, from the Falkland Islands and South America. On the Now Zealand side thprowas not much left to learn. His own expedition had been very fortunate in the services of Professor David, Mr. Mawson, physicist, and Mr. Murray, biologist. Mr. Murray was an expert in his department, which was one of the most important. Tho conversation was a very short one, but it was interrupted half-a-dozen times by local acquaintances of Lieutenant Shackleton, made at that day's luncheon table, who came to bid him a reluctant farewell, lightened by enthusiastic hopes that when he came again to Wellington he would be able to stay longer, and they would see much more of him —hopes which the visitor reciprocated. As the commander of the expedition is loaded with correspondence and other duties, ho will esteem it a great favour if local friends who have congratulated him by written word will conceive of their congratulations as having been received and kindly realised, without looking for a formal reply. Lieutenant Shackleton will be busily engaged at Christchurch until Easter, which season he intends to spend in the seclusion of little Orari, South Canterbury. He will return to Wellington about April 13, give a lecture hero on tho 14th, and leave for Sydney about the 15th. At Sydney he will make final arrangements for the distribution of the scientific collection, and when that is don 6 ho expects to leave for England, where he may give a series of lectures on the expedition. Museum Trophies. - Mr. A. Hamilton, curator of the Dominion Museum, had a conversation with Lieutenant Shackleton yesterday morning in reference to the specimens to be divided up among museums. Mr. Hamilton's institution will receive some penguins, and a number of geological and natural history samples. Complete particulars were not obtainable, for Lieutenant Shackleton does not claim to be a scientist. Very few seals were observed by the latest party of explorers, compared with those seen by the Discovery expedition. The interesting Ross's seals were much more scarce.