MAWSON'S EXPEDITION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 49, 16 July 1912, Page 8

MAWSON'S EXPEDITION.

SOME STRAY PARAGRAPHS. DISCOVERY OF WHALES. WHAT THE FILM WILL SHOW. •Mr. Conrad C. Eitel, sometime of the staff of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, but now secretary of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, is in Wellington at present. ■Mr. Eitel is not an exploring member of the expedition, and he has not been further south with Dr. Mawson and his party than the Macquarie Islands, which are the rendezvous of the expedition. He went with the party in the chartered steamer Toroa, which took some 17 of the members and a quantity of stores to supplement those carried by the expedition ship, the Aurora, to the first meeting-place.

The immediate business on hand in Wellington at present is the developing of 4000 feet of kinematograph film taken fcy the expedition kinematographer, Mr. Primmer, who has already something of a record as an intrepid picture man. He was with Birtles, the Australasian overland cyclist, on one of his cross-continent rides, when the party were attacked by natives. Mr. Primmer worked his machine until the natives were within 20 yard 9 of him, and a serious spear wound received by one of the party was good enough evidence that the blacks were in earnest. In the present case it has turned out that the development of the Antarctic film was about as trying a pioce of work as tlie capturing of it. Mr. Eitel told a Dominion reporter that Mr. Primmer arrived with the undeveloped film the previous morning, and Mr. Eitel and he got into touch at once with Mr. J. McDonald, Government photographer. The Government's developing outfit was placed at the disposal of Mr. Primmer, and Mr. McDonald lent his assistance in the preparation of a huge tank of 84 gallons of developer. It was mixed with hot water to ensure that work could be commenced quickly, and tlie result was that the metal fumes pervaded the whole room and very nearly overcame all three. They put the first instalment of the film, 700 feet of it, into the bath, and when it was through they staggered out to the air like drunken men, in an almost fainting condition. They had intended to go to work again, but they were not fit to face another ordeal.

This film will be shown at a private exhibition, at which his Excellency the Governor will be invited to be present, in Wellington later in the week. On this trip Mr. Primmer has done some remarkably clever work. Some of the pictures of rough seas in the Southern Ocean at this season of the year should be exceptionally striking. At an exhibition of a former "Mawson" picture at Hobai't, said Mr. Eitel, one of the guests, a lady, in the dress circle, became quite distressfully sea sick. On this later trip on the Aurora the seas were very much rougher. Mr. Primmer has also got some excellent pictures of sea elephants, gazing at short range into the camera, and snapping their cavernous mouths in

- vredDOkeH- eofthn—hie savage disgust at the strange intruders. These monsters will appear in the picture about 20 to 25 feet long. A very fine specimen of this species of seal, 17 feet long, was secured by Mr. Edgar P. Waite, curator of the Christchurch Museum, and a member of the expedition, for his institution.

"Unfortunately," said Mr. Eitel, "we could not do much dredging on this trip, and it will be necessary to make another cruise. When the Aurora was last back in I-lobart Captain Davis, who navigated Shackleton's steamer, had a curious experience'which shows the difficulties and dangers the party have already met with. The harbormaster who had come to pilot the steamer up the river proposed to anchor the vessel out in the stream until he learned that both anchors had been lost at the Maequarie Islands. The ship had come 4000 miles, skirting 2000 miles of coastline, without an anchor. She had one small ice anchor, which of course was useless except in ice. You can imagine the difficulties encountered in landing two .parties under those conditiona.

I "The furthest south the expedition ) hopes to get is the Magnetic Pole, which I is 230 miles from Mawson's main base. [This distance must be traversed with ' sleighs. The objects of the expedition are scientific and economic. We hop& that one result of the expedition will be the starting of a very profitable whaling industry. The Aurora came across a very large number of what are believed to have been right whales dn a loitely part of the Antarctic. The Commonwealth Government has arranged for us to take out a whaling equipment with us on next trip, in order that we may bring back the head of one of these supposed right whales. One of these animals is worth anything from £SOO to £IOOO for whalebone alone, the current price of which is £1250 a ton. If we can get a head our evidence that they are right whales will be complete. One of the Norwegian whaling expeditions wanted to know wheie these whalea were to be found, but the captain refused to tell, saying that his knowledge belonged to the Commonwealth Government."