PERKS FOR THE EXPLORER.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 4, 15 January 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

PERKS FOR THE EXPLORER.

THEY POCKET THOUSANDS OF POUNDS BY SELLING THEIR ADVENTURES. The two Poles —one of which Sir Ernsst Shackle-Urn lias started out to dash across —would both have been reached a good many years ago but loathe enormous cast of getting there. If you or I wished to take a trip to the South Pole wo should first have to hire and equip a special ship, to engage a crew, to lay in stores for them all for three years, to buy dogs, sledges ponies, motors, tents, costly clothing, medicines, and goodness what all lie.sides. At a moderate estimate tho cost would be £-10.000. In old day* an explorer got a certain amount of honour and glory—sometimes an order or even a title. But nothing else. To-day h. e is better off. The "fry first thing that the explorer does, when he has made up his mind to start for one of the dark places of tho earth, is to interview the proprietor of one of the great newspapers, and see what he is willing to bid for first accounts of notable discoveries. His second is to make an arrangement with a publisher to bring out the book which lie always writes. The prices paid for the copyright of uucli books are often very large indeed. Sit H. . Stanley was the first of the gri at explorers to make a large sum out of an account of his travels. STANLEY GOT £20.000 FOR HIS BOOK. It was in ISG9 that the "New York Herald" commissioned him to find Livingstone. Th e paper paid all his expen-es and, of course, a large salary into the bargain, and he met Livingstone at Ujiji on November 10th, 1871. Two years later he made a second journey across Central Africa which was financed by the " Herald" and the "Daily Telegraph" together. For tbe book which ho afterwards wrote, "Through the Dark Continent," be was paid £20,000. Afterwards, he did a lecturing tour in Amer-.a, and according to his manager. Ma'"or Pond, this netted him £22,000. Most of us remember the French expedition to Fashoda under the gallant Captain Marchand. Marchand. on his return, wrote a book called '"Le \oyage do la Mission Marchand." The publishing firm of Hachetto cfv-'red him (J 13.000 for the copyright. He answered that Stanley got more than that sum. and he wanted at least as much. The publishers 'refused to pay more, and in the end tbe work rod to be disposed of for a very much smaller sum. R.OOSEYELT HAS DONE WELL. Tn 1003 Captain Roald Amundsen, who afterwards discovered the South Pole, made the North-West passage in a thirty-year-old fishing vessel, with a crew of seven The story of that extraordinarv feat, which took four years to accomplish, is told in two bulky volumes published at £1 lis Gd. Tho book has appeared in almost every civilised country, and, no doubt, netted the explorer a very large sum. One of the finest of quick dashes to-' wards the North Pole was that made bv the Duke of the Abruzzi. A firm of English publishers offered him the enormous sum of £40,000 for the complete copyright of his book, and of the photographs taken. Another gentleman who has done very well out of his travels is ex-Presi-dent Roosevelt. It is said, and on good authority, that the firm which asked him to 'take bis African trip in 1903 paid him £12.000 for serial rights, as well as a royalty on the sale of his book. The price must have worked out something like Bs. a word. The camera is almost equal to tho pen as a source of income to er.pldrers. To-dav no expedition starts out without a full outfit of cameras and a couple of skilled photographers. The cinematograph promises to be even more valuable to the explorer of the future.