NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4463, 16 September 1909, Page 2

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Wjs in Te Aroha as well as the millions throughout the civilized world are more or less interested in recent developments in the interests qf science which have taken place in connection with the discovery of the North Pole. That the most northern point has been reached is now an accomplished fact—that is if we are to believe Dr. Cook and Commander Peary. The question has now arisen : Who owns the Pole ? The constitution of the United States, according to the AttorneyGeneral, ' follows the Flag, and Dr. Cook and Commander Peary have presumably made the North Pole a territory of the United States. It is pointed out, however, that the question of ownership is not to be settled quite so simply. Jf the Nprth Pole happens to be on an island, with tbrep miles oi clear water—©r ice—around it, there will be no dispute. But if there is land, and the land happens to be a portion of some other land and is connected with territory already annexed, the title of the discoveries will not bo a clean one. Sir Wilfrid Laurier once observed in the Dominion House of Commons that American names had been given on recept maps to territories in the far north which, in hi* jndgment, were under British jurisdiction, That jurisdiction, he added, would be assorted nnd Americans wonld not bp permitted to take a position in those lands, Franz Josef Land is claimed by Austria, Spitsbergen by Sweden, Greenland belongs to Denmark, and Grin noil Land to Britain. If the North Pole should nrove to be linked by land with any one of these territories, there might be technical ground for holding that it belongs to the owner of the connected land, not to the discoveries. So far as new lands W pofleerped there is a very old doctrine thafc dj&cflypry gjyefl a vahd title, but the title bp lp.pt by neglect »nd must he made gpod by occupation. If the Americans want the Pole permanently tberpfme, they must send Dr. Cook to live there. By' aU the sentimental rules of the game, however, and the Americans are fully entitled to exploit it« natural resources. If the accepted theory that th° Pffl® stands in the midst of the sea prove# t“ e discoverer can giye jt no nationality* The United States Attorney-General may certainly claim jnrisdmtmn fiver the block of ice on which Gpwnmnder Peary camped but when that block drifts within the three-mile limit of some foreign country, the latter can and possibly will annex the “ pole,” flag and all 1

Who Owns The Pole?