TOURISTS FOR ANTARCTICA.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9411, 3 April 1909, Page 6

TOURISTS FOR ANTARCTICA.

Many a time the half or wholly* joking remark has been made that in time a series of popular excursions may be rnn to Antarctica, so that the people who wish to try its charms and adventures for themselves, and there ate many of them do so (says the Lyttelton Times), Most people~are content to leave the matter as a joke; but now the question whether it may not be otherwise is legitimate. In the history of Antarctic ex* ploratiou, which has been mad© very rapidly daring the past few years, II is no short step to look back to even so recent a date as 1893. Xn that year the ship Antarctic was equipped, largely through the beneficence of Commander Svend Foyn, for , a southern jonrney. Oorioosly enough, at the time when the .Nimrod has just returned from the most successful Antarctic voyage ever made, there is in Lyttelton the man to whose energy the promotion of the 1893 expedition was due. This is Mr H. J. Lulls, of Christiania, anti he has ventured to put into, the shape of a serious? proposition a suggestion that was turned off in joke. There is nothing, Mr Bali says, la the way of natural difficulty to prevent the institution of annual excursions, open to the public, to the Antarctic regions, and there can be little doubt that they would pay handsomely. The suggestion, la outline, is that a suitable vessel, of the same type as the Discovery, should be purchased. Ordinary iron steamers are out of the question, and suitable wooden vessels are rare. An expenditure of some £20.0€0 would, he thinks, cover the cost of purchasing and fitting out the ship. The journeys, Mr Bull suggests, should commence from a Sew Zealand port about the middle cf January, ana the whole voyage should occupy about ‘ four weeks. The short time consumed would bo one of tne strong points in favour of the scheme. As to the prospects from the passenger-carrying point of view there is mnch to be said. The man in the street avers stoutly that he would not go to Antarctica. But the tourist community is a strange pari of the race, and what might lock a stiff price on paper, say, £IOO or £l5O, would not be much to charge for such a journey, and, in Mr Bull's opinion, would certainly not deter a large number of passengers from travelling. Neither would the risks of the voyage. That, however, is net the most important point abcufe the scheme. Exploration work, and even the most limited recording c±‘ observations, have to await the few opportunities that occur under the system of financing special expeditions. Consequently very few men can exert themselves in extending knowledge of the regions to the south, and there are hundreds of ambitious scientists who might do much but never have the opportunity. The establishment cf a commercial vessel would allow observation and exploration work to go on far more freely, and an enormous proportion of the expense which has to be undertaken in sending out a batch ot workers would be defrayed by the “drones.” Prevision could always be made for allowing parties to remain in the south for scientific purposes over the winter, and they would thus havens much time for work as any specially equipped expedition. The question has been asked: What is the element which draws men so strongly to the frozen zones, and draws them again anti again? The first thing Mr Bull referred to in the course ot conversation was that very point. “It is,” he said, “because the Arctic and Antarctic regions are places of such marvellous beauty and grandeur thet the greatest privations and misfortunes cannot outweigh the pleasures of a sojourn there.. It would need only better facilities for the voyage to prove how potent the attractions are,” He added that the Antarctic, aa he saw it, had charms far beyond the northern regions, whither hundreds of tourists repair every summer to view the “midnight; sun.”