Antarctic Expedition.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 293, 18 December 1901, Page 1

Antarctic Expedition.

DISCOVERY TO RETURN TO DOCK

[RY TELEGItAPH PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Christchurch, last night. Tho Discovery is to go into dock again to morrow morning, as a littlo further work on her hull has been found necessary. She is to come out on Friday, and will leave on her voyage to tho Antarctic regions on Saturday, at 2 p.m.

In the course of a speech rec'mC' , Captain Scott said that one of the greatest dangers that polai explorers had to go through was what was nopularly called a swelled,head." he supposed it was the same to a. con a::: extent, with other explorers, but with polar explore.s it seemed to be a general rule, to bid them farewell, a ui send them oil with ever} hosp 1 ..ality that could he offered to them Tney felt the noiior very deeply, but he liked to think that it shower a sympathy with the objects they had before then, and it showed that the English people who were here sympathised with lie advancement of knowledge for tli; sake of knowledge, and that there wis still in them the spirit of adventure fot the sake of adventure, which he tl: i"g',t. had played so great a part in the history of the Empire. (Applause ) Of the expedition itself, Captain Scott mentioned its singular origin, for it was an cin-h »ly new departure It uni previous expeditions of the kind They had an expedition sent out by two societies, and it was the first time-an expedition of such financial importance infinite credit to those two societies He supposed they should like it better to be a national expedition, and feel that the whole nation was beh'.'d them, but at the same time it did infinite credit to those two societ.ied that they undertook the organisation of such a big affair. It was out r.f their line, and nothing of the sort had ever been done before, yet they boldly launched out and undertook it. Although they were aided by the Government, yet the initiation and organisation of the departure of the expedition was entirely due to the efforts of those societies. Of course the credit must be taken individually, but Sir Clements Meakham stood out pre-emi-nently. (Hear, hear.; Even now he had started a reliei ship, and he l ad already obtained £COOO towards it, and had bought the ship as well. (Applause.) The objects of the expedition wt’V principally geoaraph’cal, to discover the nature and extent of

the South Polar regions. Then came in order o' precedence magnetism. There were also gieat biological problems to be dealt- with. The objects were really manifold—that was to ray he was to push on and do the best he could for each of the objects, II? would say just a word about the rout-?. Their intention was 1c pass down m the 175th meridian, which passed a little to the west of New Zealand, and they hop'ii |.o pi.se down the last coast of Victoria Lana, along wf icli they ho.'/d ;o leave records of what they had'none up to that time, and so that any retie expedition might be able to p'ck up inese records. They ihen hoped 1c go dcwt to the south of Victoria Land to tl <-sn regions v.f icii Sir ihennas Ross discovered in 1:,4 ‘ and which they hoped to explore. He also hoped to pass along the ice harrier, that stretched for 300 or 400 miles along to the eastward, and then pass into the region of the unknown. As long as they remained in the region of the known he could give them some idea of what would happen, but not when they reached the regions of the unknown. 'Their work, however, began long before they reached the unknown. Exploring nowadays was of quite a different- kind to what it was in olden days. In former times the object was to discover new lands, but now it was to scientifically discover new lands. They would pass into this unknown region, but, of course, thev hoped eventually to come back into the known region again, and when they did their first hope was to return to Lyttelton. (Loud Applause.) He wanted to inform them that when they returned to Lyttelton they might come, back as beggars—(laughter)—because a point in the organisation of their expedition was this : that at one critical moment there was not enough money to meet the situation, and it was met by reducing the amount set apart for wages to cover two years instead of three. Provisions, clothing, etc., were provided for a three years’ cruise, but wages and other tilings were arranged for two rears onlv. The more he studied Antarctic history the more he thought that it was very unlikelv that great success would come at. first, ami what he felt was that they might return to Lyttelton. They did not expect to grasp these t.iscovcries at first, and it would be veiy hard on those anxious to o back again if the funds would not a’low them to return. He, however, did not doubt but that the money would be raised somehow. At the same Line they should come hack if they were anxious to proceed again, ami if they had not done much they would be anxious to go on until they had done somethin? ; so that thev should come back as teggars. However, they knew'that tier would be welcomed by all those present. (Loud Applause.)