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Hokitika Guardian, 18 August 1922, Page 2

An unusual amount of interest lias been aroused over the suggestion, ta chunge tlie name of the Tasman Sea to Anxac Seu. The. cocasion for the choice of Tasman is historically geographical— Tasman being the first adventurer to plough the ocean. That he was regarded as a great explorer, and rightly so, is indicated also by the naming of tlio second highest- mountain in New Zea-

land after Tasman, the peak being in close juxtaposition to Mount Cook and readily visible from Hokitika. Anzac is now a name which has passed into almost sacred use. It rs a privilege to use the name presented by an Act of I’arlianient. It is indelibly associated with the far off place in the northern Hemisphere where the deeds of the Aliases like those of the Greeks of old, will render the name imperishable. It does not appear appropriate to apply the name to a sea so far removed from the scene where the Anzacs performed their super-human task; nor does it appear

appropriate that Tasman’s name should be superseded in the circumstances—for he performed a daring task in passing over the unchartered sea which leaves a memory for all time. Nearer home there is a divergence of opinion about the naming of the great tunnel linking up the East and West Coast railways. On May 5, 1908, Sir Joseph Ward, the then Premier, at the firing of the first shot in the piercing of the mountai mange, officially named the work “The Arthur’s Pass tunnel.” A Canterbury gentleman who was present at the time suggested the name should be “The Seddon Tunnel” but Sir Joseph remarked that Cabinet had decided the matter, and it could not be changed. So we have the Arthur’s Pass

tunnel now an accomplished fact. Looking to the circumstances how the Pass was first discovered and named and that the tunnel supplies the alternative route to the road over the hill, the name is not at* all inappropriate and might well ( stand seeing that it is a compliment to the intrepid discoverer whose surname is, also closely associated with a named place on the West Coast.

Recent cable messages have indicated a revival of interest among aviation experts in the possibility of flight without mechanical power. It was the idea of the ancients that one day man. might emulate the birds, and by merely fitting on a pair of wings navigate the upper air. Otto Lielenthal, one of the pioneers of tyvifttlw, lost bis life in ex-, perimentn In the !>rt of soaring. Since the ti 10 if ! V 'TltVal engineering sci»

once has given us a form of motor 9o light in proportion to the tremendous power developed that it has been possible for men to fly in defiance of the fact that all the secrets of bird flight have not been elucidated. But in the process'of perfecting the power-driven aeroplane, and especially in perfecting its efficiency for purposes of war, a great deal has been learned about wings and their principles. In. Germany investigators are still actively engaged in exploring the possibilities of motorless flight, and these efforts have been crowned with a very considerable degree of success in more than one case. On July 30. 1921, so the “Scientific American” assures us, a German experimenter named Klemperer flew six miles in 13 minutes 3 seconds. Tn its flight this machine rose 300 feet above its starting point (on a hill) and landed 1560 feet lower than the starting point. On September 6, last, Martens, another experimenter, beat the record of Klemperer by remaining in the air for 15 minutes 40 seconds. Martens covered only 4 3-5 miles. The achievement which heats :!1 these records, and which seems to pine.the idea of a non-mechanical flight absolutely beyond question, is that of Herr Haiti), who, so the American i journal informs us, took flight with a ! motorless monoplane and remained in the ai r for 21 minutes 37 seconds. The difference in altitude between liis starting and finishing points was only 40 feet.