NEW GUINEA MOUNTAIN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1920, 23 July 1889, Page 1

NEW GUINEA MOUNTAIN.

,Mr H, 0. Forbes, Curator of the Christchurch Museum, who is well known as an explorer of New Guinea, writes as follows to the PressWhile offering to Sir William 1 Macgregor on his successful feat of crowning Mount Owen Stanley my warmest con. gratnlalions, not unmixed with; pride that he is a fellow shires man, and strangely enough « class-fellow, I desire you to allow me a few lines to point out that I trust there is some mistake in the telegram from Brisbane, published in this morning’s paper, that Sir William has named the highest peak Mount Victoria. If the Magziha of the' Royal Scottish Geographical Society for the past year, or the report of the year 1888 of H.M. Special Commissioner for the ■protected territory in New, Guinea, be consulted, a map will be there found of the region explored by me in 1886, in in which a-position has been given to the highest summit of the block, and also the nftme of Huxley Pinnacle, Even though there should taro cat some discrepancy in my assigned position compared with that obtained by the Administrator's better equipped party, it does not invalidate the names I have already bestowed on the several peaks. If in geognpbieal or in zoological science the designation given and published by a worker or investigator of a species or geographical position,'even if not very appropriate, can be at all identified, that designation or appellation is considered inviolable, for every worker, however humble, is entitled to the credit of good and earnest work. This axiom has been fully recognised in all branches of science, otherwise the most dire con fusion would result. I feel sure that it will not be disregarded by Sir William Macgregor, who can afford to allow to the present writer the satisfaction and honor, barren compared with his, of having named the altitudes, which he earnestly strove, in vain against the Fates, to attain. That »h® appellation I have bestowed on the chief summit is distinctly appropriate will be admitted when I state that it was Professor Huxley, who, when Surgeon in H.M.B. Rattlesnake, named it after bis;commanding officer, the late Captain Owen Stanley, the same, by the way, 1 who raised the Queen’s Standard at Ak’aroa, and to whose memory stands the beautiful font in our Cathedral, erected by bis brother, the late Dead 6t Westminster,