HEALTHFUL COLD

Hokitika Guardian, 31 January 1929, Page 8

HEALTHFUL COLD

lIYGIENC FAB SOUTH

GLORIES OE GLACIER LAND

THE MAWSON PROJECT

“There is every probability of the fringe of the Antarctic Continent becoming a health and pleasure resort bacteria, lose their power in the low Lem pern tu res of the south a fact which has been fully supported in the record of every expedition which has gone there, and probably more untainted health is obtailiable in Antarctica than in any other continent.’'

The list of lores advertised in the interests ol exploring the lro/.on south is expanding, rapidly, hut the above seems to be an entirely new one. Already the Ross Sea sanatorium is visualised. There will he little trifles like remoteness from the habitable world and from .shipping courses- trifles which New Zealand herself sufficiently remote in a geographical sense, is already acquainted with—but perhaps in the dawning age of air-travel these obstacles will diminish. The aeroplane is every day bringing new Antarctic regions under reconnaissance; perhaps at no distant date the aeroplane or the airship will bring the Antarctic Continent within days’ travel of the bigger and more populated continents causing the Ross Sea sanatorium and the Grahainland glacier part to become something more than the dreams of optimists.

It is in such spirit that one of these whose bacteriological remark head.-, this articles, goes on to say: '‘The beauty and grandeur of the scenery exceed that of any other glacial resort: tin* glaciers are larger, the snow-cap-ped mountains higher, ami the land more vast and varied. Probably at! these features will be examined hv Sir Douglas Maw.son in the expedition which he is now planning. He himsolf pointed out in his writings thatthe Antarctic Continent probably held the key to some of the greatest scientific problems, and that it contained potentialities which might alter the economy of the world.” “No more remarkable record of practical achievements in Antarctic exploration exists than that of Sir Douglas Mawson and liis 1911 expedition. He (and liis party discovered and explored 1-140 square miles of land and 400 square miles of shelf ice, giving a total surface, discovered and explored, of 1840 square miles. 4ho next highest record, that of Amundsen. 1750 square miles, refers only to land discovered. According to Mr J. Gordon Hayes, wlio has chronicled the history of Antarctica exploration, the only leader of a great Antarctic expedition who was not a seafaring man was Sir Douglas Mawson. “He lias shown that the host results are attainable with scientists in command. Mawson’s result, for one expedition, is magnificent-, the more so when his scientific work is included.” His first discovery of note was his fixing, with Sir .Edgeworth David. 0! the South Magnetic Pole, when in* was with the Shaekleton expedition in 1997 to 1909. It was on his return to Adelaide that lie proposed an Australian expedition to explore ‘the Australian quadrant of the Antarctic continent- and in 1911 he left with < is party, returning in 1914. “Sir Douglas Mawson has in the highest degree the requisite qualities for a leader of such an expedition. In addition to his innate sense of leadership and his high qualifications as a. scientist, he has courage of a high order, and his epic journey to tlie base over snow and broken park-ue lor a whole month alone, after his two comoanins had perished, has been described as one of the finest examples -,f heroism that oven the exploration of Antarctica lias produced. “!t is probable that the second expedition. which he has suggested, will he arranged as early as possible: a message from Adelaide yesterday stal’d that lie intended to leave by train lor Perth at the end of the week, probably lo sail for England, to make his arrangements. Much yet rent wins to Ik* learned from Antarctic exploration scientifically conducted. Antarctic weather lias a world-wide effect, and it has been shown already that a cold winter in tlu* Wed del So a <- a sure precursor of a drought over the cereal area of Argentina. \a si stores of minerals are known to exist below the ice, ready to be exploited.