AMERICAN CABLE NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 19 December 1927, Page 2

AMERICAN CABLE NEWS

Australian & N.Z. Cable Association.) ANTARCTIC’ FLIGHT. BYRD’S PLAN. WASHINGTON. The. IG. Byrd informed the National Geographic Society of his plans for his flight to the South Pole. He eaid : “The last challenge to an aviator to explore, comes front the Antarctic Continent.” He further said that the personnel and equipment of his expedition would he taken to a base at the Great Ross Barrier, in a ship especially built to withstand the ice. Three planes will he used; with which he hopes to lay down the basis a hundred miles apart to the edge of the unexplored area, and fill in “the great blank spaces on the maps of the school children, at a rate of a hundred miles an hour.” The party will he composed of six Esquimaux, and the rest will consist of a dozen men who are expert at tlie work. He added that lie had already received over three hundred applications from persons, young and old, who desired to participate in the expedition. He stated : “The primary object of the expedition is scientific, and we hope to plant the American Hag on ihe South Pole, lo photograph the geological sections of the rugged mountainous cliffs and to search for fossil remains in an effort to disclose something of the past. I will depart from South America - for the Antarctic and hope that a. valuable by-product, ol the expedition will he the cementing of goodwill between the United States I and South America.” He concluded : “It is my intention to make the expedition completely an American venture.”

SCHOOL DESTROYED BY FIRE OTTAAYA. Dec. 16. Another disastrous fire destroyed the St. l.onis Academy Boarding School for hoys at Quebec. Two hundred inmates were rescued. The damage is estimated at a quarter of a million dollars. Like the Hospice of St. Charles, destroyed on Wednesday, the known loss is 3G lives. The school was conducted by the Sisters of flic Good Shepherd.