The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 1912. THE FROZEN SOUTH.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 236, 3 April 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 1912. THE FROZEN SOUTH.

Captain Scott tells a plain story in plain words of his Antarctic explorations. The commander of the southern expedition is neither a journalist nor a romancer—and there is a whole lot of difference between the two. But he tells a simple story with all the impertinence as if he meant it. He has nothing to say of vivid starsprent skies and shimmering rainbows on the ice. Metaphor and simile and the high falutin' enthusiasms of the "descriptive" writer have no place in the bright lexicon of his youth. His is a story of stern fact. The "pate de foie gras" of his critics resolved itself into indifferent seal blubber, the eider-down quilts became frozen sleeping-bags, the rare vintages of France were concocted from ice thawed in a kerosene tin, and his evening entertainment was the music of the wind, threading its monody through desolate wildernesses of lifeless snow and ice. Still, his story carries conviction. It is idle for those who only serve by watching and waiting to criticise this man and his comrades. They stand for the spirit that has made Great Britain foremost in the nations of the world. Their fathers for generations back, by sea and by land, have put a double hold upon the stars, and, carrying their lives in their hands, have wrung from the world its uttermost secrets. It is not given to every man to prospect the unknown and to dare oblivion in cold blood. Ulysses-like, this typical Englishman has sought fresh laurels to add to his country's crown, and with his mariners, who "ever with a frolic welcome took the thunder and the sunshine," he has penetrated into the untrodden wastes of the Antarctic in the hope that "some work of noble note may yet be done." This is the spirit that has made the nation what it is. Nor is the object of the expedition only the exploitation of romance, the justification of Imperial sentiment, and the dogged challenge of personal bravery. It has its severely practical side. The Antarctic is the silent dwelling-place of those twin aggressors of the son, Boreas and Euroclydon. rayagers of our trade routes, despoilers of our commerce, and tolltakers of -those that go down to the sea in ships. The Pole, so far as the present expedition is concerned, was a mere

objective. Its object was to study meteorological and climatic conditions in the far south, with a view to harnessing the winds and taming the tempest, through an intimate knowledge of their wayward ways and wanderings. How far f'ey have succeeded we cannot yet tell r the plain sailor story of the comma:..' r reads more like a leaf from his log ihan like a scientific discourse upon ascertained and possible results. This daring little band of adventurers has roluntarily undertaken to remain in the Far South for another year in quest of their "Golden Fleece," cut off from civilisation, surrounded by ceaseless dangers, hampered by a diminished equipment, but still strong of heart and purpose. While such men remain to "strike the sounding furrows" of unknown seas for pure love of eountry the safety and the progress of the Empire are assured.