ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 9015, 28 December 1907, Page 4

ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION.

Lieutenant Shackleton, commanding the South Polar Expedition which sets forth from, our shores upon its interesting but perilous mission on New Year's Day, will take with him the heartiest good wishes of the people of this dominion. It is re markable that iif the past the pioneering efforts of naviagtors desirous of enlightening the world respecting its remotest ends have been hampered for lack of funds. Previous efforts to epxlore the Antarctic, regions were greaty delayed from this cause, although the sums required were a mere bagatelle compared with those which even a small country lik a New Zealand can and does throw away upon frippery and ostentation every year. But niggardliness in the matter of expenditure on the part of Governments has characterised most exploratory movements of the kind, and private enterprise hns had to provide the greater sh;..ie of the money, needed for expeditions that have been intended' solely for the benefit of mankind. The Shackleton expedition has been somewhat more fortunate than its congeners. The Commonwealth Government anticipated a public subscription, and made a very substantial grant in aid of the cost of the expedition, which in the main has been privately subscribed by Lieutenant Shackleton and his friends; and now the New Zealand Government has donated £I,OOO, and is apparently prepared to pay in addition the cost of towing the Nimrod to the ice-pack, which will run into a very considerable sum of money. This removes the last obstacle in the way of a propitious start. The future movements of the gallant band of explorers will be watched with the keenest interest by the civilised world, and particularly by the scientific portion of it.