The Daily News TUESDAY, JANUARY 7. IS IT WORTH IT ALL?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 310, 7 January 1908, Page 2

The Daily News TUESDAY, JANUARY 7. IS IT WORTH IT ALL?

Infatuations taking possession of the mimta of a section of tho people arc not infrequent; if they were not so frequent mcy would be icynriUd as in their nature amazing. 'liu-rc is <j story, iamiI liar to tue youth ot most people of the British race, of a ccrUtiu elderly gentleman rt.)u.-.c ueard was blue, and who, for present purpose*, may be taken as the I representative oi plain, practical comiii.Mi smse. Ueing about 10 undertake a lengthened jouiucy, iUu'uoard, as he was familiarly called, handed over to his fascinating wife (who, there are grounds for believing, did not care particularly for him, at all event* in his representative capacity) tiie keys of every door leading to room, cupboard, or client in his spacious castle. She was free to open everything, go anywhere, "but," eaid the sagacious liluebeard, "there in one cuplward; here is the key, which I 1 would earnestly urge it would be inadvisable for you to attempt to open. Take iny assurance that Tour doing so wil not serve any beneiicial purpose, aw may be followed by very serious, nai fatal consequences." The beautiful Fa \ tinia, her husband having departed, roam ed the world, represented by the eastU * but ever *he returned to the forbidde: door. The embodiment of fatuous eur ositv, she hovered continually in th neighborhood of that fatal cupboan wondering what could be (he secret ; possessed. At length, disregarding hi husband's explicit injunctions, she screv ed her courage up and opened the doo She found within the skeletons of Bin \ beards former wives—numerous the (were— whose disregard of plain warning and whose irresistible curiosity had h to a perfectly awful fate.

'he cupboard of this story may be sken to stand for the North Pole; the keletons are the remains, too accuratey. of those who have all untimely pcrshed in attempts to get there. There s always a Katima hovering round that ■losed door, the Pole; year by year to he skeletons within others arc added. It is all in the cause of science, it is illeged. During the last sixty years fery many expeditions have been sent forth to fathom the Becrets of the Arctic ind to reach the Pole; vast sums have been expended, property lost, the lives of noble, heroic men have been sacrificed. Will anyone say what, from a practical, useful, common-sense point of view, the world has gained? When one reads the liet of the ships that have gone north upon a perfectly idiotic quest, the almost superhuman efforts that have lieen made, the dangers faced, the privations and the sufferings endured, the precious and numerous lives lost, a ri"ht is given to demand, What has mankind practically gained! Supposing for one brief moment that the most brilliant hopes that were ever entertained in

connection with any one of these expeditions were realised; that the whole Arctic region were explored, surveved, marked off into building lots; that the Pole had been attained, and found to he a mere stick after all. would ever anybody contemplate going to plough tiie snows to grow potatoes, or build cities where only the white bear can live? For \eai> the struggle was to lind a north.west passage—a shorter route to India—in the very face of the patent fact that if they succeeded in finding such a passage—as succeed they ultimately did—it could only lie open for navigation for two or three days in each year. Nahas closed ihe cupltoards of the Arctic and the Antarctic, but fatuous, curious man still goes prving round. "Science! Science!" is still the cry.

What are scientific results sought by the expedition which sailed south from LytteHmi oil New Year's Day? Lieutenant SIII cklcton declares lie is arranging •■that the magnetic work of this expedition ahall be done in the water more immediately adjoining New Zealand and Australia." ' Repeating himself; be savs:—"lt may be finally d£ cided that the Ximrod shall confine her masnetic work to the seas south of New Zealand. The expedition will also run lines of soundings lietween New Zealand "id her dependent /islands and between New Zealand and Australia." That is all the information that has been Vouchsafed art to the scientific objects of the ew.'ition: and how fnr the most niagliiliceirt achievements in these directions are goinp to advance the commerce of tli" world, the wealth of the people, or the hippiness of any section of mankind every on- is free to form bis own judgment. Hut how comes it that ill order to caiTV out these objects the expedition is hearing away with it do<rs, ponies and motor cars in order to enable Lieutenant Shacklcton's scientific friends to go ''""t'lii; about with the thermometer •">» degrees below zero in Victoria Land?

It a man rushes into flames in mi eniMivor to sive others he may lie thought mad, but the motive at heart rovers everything, and he is a hero. Tf lie rushes into fire when there is no life to be saved, nothing to Ih i gained to appreciably compensate for the low of his own life, what is to he thought of him? 111 precisely the same way if a man rushes wildly into the regions impenetrable through the lowness of the atmosphere seeking a Pole, whether it lie north or south, or the glory of attaining to the farthest north or farthest south, what is to be thought of him? hy. that he is a fatuously curious I'atima intent upon rushing to his fate in defiance of past experiences, in spite of all warnings. It is stated that 30,000 people went to Lyttelton to see the expedition depart. How many of them knew anthing of the objects of the expedition—how many of them cared a brass farthing? It was in the nature of the public execution. They went to Bee depart men who, Quixotically taking their lives into their hands, threw themselves into certain suffering and imminent danger, who, indeed, might never return. It is to be hoped, however, not only that they will return, but that very faithfully they will represent the last of such expeditions.