NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16485, 26 February 1914, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The Methodist Conference which will open in Dunedin to-day will bo the first gathering of the " Wesleyan Parliament " since the Union of the Primitive Methodist Church with the parent body. It is expected that about one hundred ministers will be present and a rather larger number of laymen. During the past twelve months Methodism has been extending its influence in various parts of the dominion by the erection of fourteen places of worship, five parsonages and three Sunday schools and by active, practical work in other directions. It will be reported to the Conference to-day that 759 adults and 754 junior members have been added to the ,roll of the church during the year and that 271 applicants for membership have been placed on the customary probation. A suggestion has been made for the abolition of the "time limit" which prevents a Methodist minister remaining in one charge for longer than five years, and it is probable this will be discussed during the present session of the Conference, but in view of the recent union between the sister churches, it is unlikely that so radical a change in the constitution will be made without prolonged deliberation.

The alpine disaster involving the loss of three lives on the Mount Cook range is one of those things which human skill and foresight and courage are helpless to avert. A mountaineer takes his life in his hand very literally when he essays the conquest of a peak like ice-cased Aorangi. Climbing knowledge and experience, the use of the rppe, well-nailed footgear and ice-axes of the best steel are all of little avail before the dreadful avalanche. In the planning out of a practicable and possibly safe route, with due regard to the atmospheric conditions, the leader of a party displays his alpine strategy and his common sense even before the ascent is begun, but a great deal must necessarily be left to chance and luck or Providence, by whatever name people choose to call it. Weather changes occur with startling suddenness in the high Alps, and a beautiful bright morning may end in a blinding, freezing snowstorm.

But avalanches, such as the one which seems to have overwhelmed the Hermitage party, naturally occur most frequently in this warm summer weather. On a hot afternoon the valleys of the Hooker and Tasman Valleys are echoing every few minutes with the thundering crashes and long roarings of avalanches of ice and snow from the Cook and Moorhouse Ranges, falling like powdery waterfalls, as seen from a distance, for thousands of feet, the feeders of the huge glaciers below. Apparently it was the breaking-off of an overhanging berg of ice which obliterated all traces of Mr King and his two guides. These dangers are perfectly obvious to mountain climbers, but there are occasions in a mountain descent—which as a rule is more dangerous than the ascent—when avalanche-swept couloirs must be crossed, and there are also times when a rock face must be traversed in full knowledge of the fact that at any instant the masses of ice and snow poised above may come crashing down. The reverberation of voices on a still day has been known to start an avalanche or a rock slide.

Considering the many high climbs that have been carried out on the Aorangi Range, the heart and citadel of the New Zealand Alps, there has been a remarkable immunity from accident. It is a little more than thirty years since the Rev W. S. Green made the pioneer assault on Mount Cook, but it was twelve years later before any Alpinist quite succeeded in scaling it, and in the meantime many adventurous climbs had been made. Mr Green had hard luck. He got within a very short distance of the summit and then had to turn back and spend a freezing night on the mountain. The first climbers to stand on the top of the great peak were three young New Zealanders, J. Clarke, G. Graham and T. C. Fyfe. Their climb was made on Christmas Day, 1894, and the second ascent of a successful nature was made in the autumn of 1895 by M. Zurbriggen, the Swiss guide who accompanied the English Alpinist Mr Fitzgerald to New Zealand.

It was ten years later before Aorangi was scaled again, although numerous climbers ventured their lives and limbs on the range. On February 3, 1905, Guide J. Clarko (one of those who made the first ascent in 1894), Guide Peter Graham (a young "West Coaster, who is now in charge of the climbing arrangements at the Hermitage), and the Rev H. E. Newton, Dr E. Teichelmann and Mr Lowe ascended from the usual side, the Tnsman, and met with comparatively little obstruction on their big climb. The fourth ascent, on January 10, 1906, made by Guide Peter Graham and Messrs T. C. Fyfe, Malcolm Ross and S. Turner, an English Alpinist now settled in New Zealand, was historic because it was the first complete traverse of the peak, from the Tasman side to tho Hooker Valley. It was a remarkably perilous performance, and in the descent over ice-glazed rocks in tho darkness there were several narrow escapes from disaster. Since that time the traverse of Mount Cook has become, a favourite climb with the more skilful of our own and visiting mountaineers, but it will always bo attonded with much danger, and Aorangi and his satellites will take their toll, as they have just done for the first time. Such things aro one of the penalties of adventure which will always exist to givo zest to the great sport and to stimulate the daring spirit of the race. When the members of tho Farmers'

Union talked yesterday of reducing the cost of living by putting the producers into direct touch with the consumers through the labour organisations, they were really endorsing the demand for a municipal market. If Christchurch had such a market, the small farmer would be able to put his produce before the consumers without the intervention of middlemen and without the uncertainties attached to sales by auction under present conditions. But the market docs not seem likely to be established in the near future and Mr F. G. Horrell's suggestion that the Farmers' Union should approach the labour organisations with the object of arranging methods of distribution ought to meet with hearty approval on the side of the city consumers. The farmer is not the man who has raised the cost of living. He is very often a victim of unnecessary high prices himself and it is a hopeful sign to find representatives of his class appreciating their kinship with the over-burden-ed workers of the cities.

The explanations offered of the prolonged delay in the re-housing of the Government departments in Christchurch have a piquant flavour. The Lands Department, it is rumoured, has not made up its mind which Minister to obey and while it hesitates the occupation and furnishing of the new Government buildings cannot be completed. The facts before the public are that the Minister of Internal Affairs said the Lands Department was going to move to the new quarters and the Minister of Marine said he thought it had better etay where it was. The matter appeared to be one for the decision of tho Minister of Internal Affairs, but the peripatetic Mr Fisher has not attempted to disguise his interest in the arrangements and his visits to Christchurch have coincided with renewed reports in the party organs concerning the immovability of the Lands Department. Meanwhile -the mere public„ is being put to some inconvenience by the unsettled state of affairs in the new buildings.

. Dr Felix Koenig, who is going to lead an Austrian expedition into the Antarctic, was in the southern regions two years ago with Lieutenant Filckner, the German explorer. He has selected a base in the Weddell Sea, close to the point chosen by Sir Ernest Shackleton, because Lieutenant Filohner worked in thnt neighbourhood and partially examined some new land. 11 Dr Koenig is going to continue the German expedition's work," said a message from Vienna last month'. " He proposes to land in the Weddell Sea and with that as his base to make sledge journeys east, west, and probably south. His proposed outfit- includes 172 Greenland dogs and four Eskimos and their families, presumably to look after the dogs. It is not quite clear whether Dr Koenig contemplates a trans-continental journey, but his equipment would make such a scheme possible." The Austrian explorer is capable and enthusiastic, and his countrymen evidently expect him to attempt great deeds.