THE CIVIC WELCOME.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 959, 28 October 1910, Page 6

THE CIV IC WELCOME.

"LIKE COMING HOME."

NEW ZEALAND'S GOOD W^HES,

There wasa fairly large assemblage of j citizens at the civic: welcome 'to Captain* Scott ia tho municipal Concert Chamber" late in the afternoon. The Mayor (Mr.' T. M. Wilford, M.P.) presided, and with him .'on the platform were Captain and Mrs. Seott, Sir Joseph and Lady Ward and Miss Ward, Mrs. Wilford, Mrs. 3. P. Luke, Mrs. F. Cohen,, and most of the .members of : the City Council; : A large number of members of Parliament were present, . ■ ■■"',.- :■■ : A burst of hearty applanse followed the assurance given by tie Major in a short speech, that the- city of Wellington heartily welcomed Captain Scott and wished him good luck in the-expedition. The Prime Minister (Sir Joseph Ward) said he was very proud, on behalf of the people of Now Zealand, to endorse and-supplement the Mayor's remarks and to express.the hope that Captain Scott would have tho honour of planting the British ensign on the South Pole.: Hβ was also very proud ■of the fact that Captain Seott had included Now Zealanders in his chosen party—notably Mr. Thomson, the son of a respected member of our Parliament. He hoped Captain Scott would be able to say that' New Zealanders had helped him to reach that much-desired spot—the South Pole. (Applause.) .. ■■' . Captain- Scott (who was received with great applause) expressed his thanks for tho welcomo tendered him. In approaching tho shores of "Now Zealand, he had experienced something/of that home feejing which he had felt'in anything like the same degree only when he was near-, ing England. When he was here before he left friends all over the country, and he knew that in returning ho would-meet with a waTm New Zealand welcome. (Applause.) ; Since ho was here last lie had had to go back to his place as a naval officer, and in tho meantime Sir Ernest Shackleton, who was with him in the Discovery, had performed: the most brilliant' feat ever achieved in Antarctic exploration. (Applau6e.) On being free ; to make another attempt, ho felt that it must bo done as soon as possiblo, lost some other nation should be the first to reach that cowted geographical position. Mr. Thomson was not the only New Zeolander who was going with him. There wore two New Zealand seamen in the crew, and Tie hoped thero would bo more. (Applause.) ; ANTARCTIC WHAI -DE. SIMPSON HOPES TO DO. NEW DEPAJJTTntES. Dr. Simpson, Qio physicist of tho Terra Nova expedition, who arrived with Captain Scott yesterday, will bo engaged in work which has a special interest for Now Zealand because of the great influence of tho Antarctic weather upon the weather of Now Zealand. J It ia Dr. Simpson's intention to set up two ■ meteorological stations, 300 miles apart—ouo at Capo Eoyds and tlio other in King Edward VII Land. Ho will thus tie enabled to determine whether tho phenomena observed aro merely local or not. ''■ ' "We shall do all the magnetic work that other expeditions have done—tho stock magnetic w.ork, as we call it," said Dr. Simpson yesterday— "and we skill also make new investigations connected with atmospheric electricity and the temperatures of the upper atmosphere. For this purpose we shall use small pilot balloons. This has never before been done ia pokr -ragians.

"We are nlso going to make a special study of ice structure ami see if we can find out the history of the large remaining masses of ico like the Barrier. Also, wo axe going to try to find out the height of the aurora by means of photographs, taken from two stations five miles apart. This, too, will be quite ii now piece of work. Nothing is really known yet about the height of tho aurora. There have been only a few guesses. It was photon graphed for tho first timo a few months ago by a Norwegian professor. Captain Scott'kept continuums magnetic records on his last expedition, and they cave some most remarkable results. But, owjng to tho difficulties met, the records were not as complete as might have been hoped. This time, wo hope to got a complete sot. The Shackleton expedition had no self-recording instruments, but we have them. Ono of the chief things I-have to do in New Zealand is to standardise these instruments with .those in. the Christchurch observatory.

Dr. Simpson will set up his observatory at the main winter quarters of the expedition, and will remain there during Captain Scott's ultimate dash for the pole. The small party who accompany the leader on that march will, however, make records of meteorological and magnetic observations.

Those who know say that Dr. Simpson is the best man that could have been selected fo.r his post. He is young and ardent. He studied at Manchester and Gottingen, and then west to ( Lapland, where he spent thirteen monthe. After another thirteen months' work in the Arctic circle, he worked for a year at tho Meteorological Office in London, and then lectured in meteorology at the Manchester' University. For the last three years he has been one of the scientific assistants of the Director-General of Observations in. India. '