MT. EVEREST EXPEDITION.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 March 1922, Page 12

MT. EVEREST EXPEDITION.

A NEW ZEALANDER TOO LATE. London, Jan. 26. Mr. S. Turner, F.R.G.S, arrived from New Zealand too late for inclusion in the Mount Everest expedition. Only a limited of passports are issued, and the personnel was complete before he got here, but he is very hopeful of having the opportunity of trying his luck next year or the year after, for there is an impression in scientific circles that it will take from five to ten years to conquer the highest mountain in the world. Mr. Turner prepared his way to London by cabling, through the High Commissioner. the suggestion that the Royal Geographical Society should give him the opportunity of going out, as he felt himself fit to stand the storms and was very sure that he could arrive at the summit. He suggested, that he should be allowed to take the two best men from the 23.000 ft. camp, using their own equipment and their own instruments, with the view of accomplishing the ascent by the end of 1923. If the task should fail, then he would give a sum of money to the Mt. Everest fund.

The day after Mr. Turner arrived, he had an interview with Sir F. Younghusband, who received him very courteously, and allowed time for a lengthy chat. Because of the experiences which had befallen the expedition last year in the case of men over fifty, Sir Francis at the outset, naturally rather inclined to the opinion that Mr. Turner’s age might be against him. He recommended Mr. Turner to the Alpine Club, and interviews have since taken place with the club officials. His reception has altogether been very gratifying. When talking to Sir Francis, Mr. Turner expressed the view that the conquest of Everest had assumed a national aspect, and that the prestige of the British Empire was involved. British honor. pluck, and endurance were at stake, and on this account the best ability in Xhe Empire should be selected.. There were men of other countries who would readily pluck the prize if the British failed to get there, as had happened before in the case of the Antarctic exploration. As strengthening his case from this point of view of fitness for his inclusion in a future party, Mr. Turner told Sir Francis that he had broken the world's skipping record on board ship' on the way to Bhgland. He had registered 10.900 skips in exactly an hour, beating the previous published world’s record of 9500. He mentioned, too, that his conquest of Mt. Cook alone was as recent as 1919. and that he was in the pink of condition and the prime of life—very much younger than his years.

“I pointed out to Sir Francis,” said Mr. Turner to me, “that mountain climbers in New Zealand are fifteen to twenty years ahead of English climber-, by reason of the unexplored and difficult mountains that we have to tackle. Further, I told him that for the pl y sical feat necessary to climbing the last 4000 ft. of Mt. Everest they required .in extraordinary man. Such physical feats on an unknown mountain arc rarely found among men who only mountains that known. Again. I hazarded the opinion that no man w'-il get to the top of Mt. Everest who cannot carry 301 b on his back.” ‘•That is to say.” interjected Sir Francis, ••nobody will ever get to the top of Mt. Everest.”

To which Mr. Turner replied that in New Zealand mountaineers carried 35 to 401 b up the most dangerous precipices in the world, and that ho had done climbing with as much as 401 b and step-cutting at the same time; that on one or two occasions he had carried 601 b —for instance, over the Milford Track only last March. “I am so enthusiastic over this conquest, and so thorough in my determination. that if it were only a question of money I should be inclined to. pawn my proverbial shirt to get there, but, unfortunately the door is locked by the Indian Government against anybody but this expedition, and. as 1 learned offiicially directly after 1 landed in Loi)don, the coming expedition party had already been