South Canterbury Times, MONDAY, MARCH 13, 1882.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2798, 13 March 1882, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, MONDAY, MARCH 13, 1882.

The ascent of Mount Cook has at length been successfully accomplished, and that by a visitor to New Zealand. This marks an era in our history which deserves a more than passing notice. The generality of people will regard the exploit as a mere, feat of climbing—worth while hearing of, but oi no farther moment. But those who say so entirely mistake the real significance of the fact. For the conquest of Mount Cook does not merely prove the possession of climbing powers on the part of an individual ; it proves to the world the survival of the old British spirit of adventure, and in these days of prophecy, when the enemies of Britain are ever predicting her downlall through the alleged decay of the national spirit, it is cheering to find instances of it, to which we may point in refutation of such statements. The hardy traveller who h .s just come down from a peak that we had always deemed inaccessible has set our youth a capital example. We have no wish to excite a climbing mania, but the cultivation of the qualities requisite in a climber of Mount Cook forms a grand discipline, and strengthens and ennobles the whole nature. ‘ Mari, striving to wrest the secrets, to penetrate the fastnesses, to match the treasures that Nature has guarded and fortified against assault, is at his best, morally and physically. If our youth would carry their superabundant energies into some such channel as mountaineering it would be better for themselves and our scientific knowledge might be materially enriched. Sub-alpine vegetation is in itself worth studying, the phenomena that present themselves at various elevations, the laws and moods of mountain solitudes, observations botanical and astronomical, all await the student who to the love of nature adds strength, pluck, and resolution sufficient to carry him to the snowcrowned heights,