THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20,1909. THE RIVAL EXPLORERS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9599, 20 September 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20,1909. THE RIVAL EXPLORERS.

The angry recriminations and denunciations that are being bandied over the telegraph between two rival explorers, one of whom is in Denmark, and the other in Labrador, bring home vividly to the astonished world that great scientists can be very human after all. Commander Peary's statement that he arrived at the North Pole, with his j scientific expedition on April 6th, 1909, is accepted unreservedly, but Dr. Cook's claim that he reached the same goal on April 21at; 1908, is at present the subject probably of a greater amount of excited, rash, and HI-informed moment than any other cause awaiting decision. Those who denounce Dr. Cook as an imposter are apparently in a majority, but there is a strong minority of disinterested scientific opinion which demands that the'evidence, should be examined before a hostile verdict is handed in, and which sets forth that there is no inherent improbability in the stnry put forward by Dr. Cook. It is quite likely that the controversy may be a long one, and whether long or short it will assuredly be bitter. That much is proved by the remarks already made by the two explorers. Unless there is a sudden coHapse of the defence, the case of Peary versus Cook, which is being heard informally with all the inhabitants of the entire civilised world from the North Pole to the South engaged as self-appointed jurors may yet be formally transferred to a legal tribunal of the United States. Meanwhile there is plenty of opportunity for innocent hilarity in listening to the crackle of the wrathful objurgations that ride the blizzards all the way from Labrador, and in bending an attentive [ear to catch the caustic replies that speed back from Copenhagen. Up to the present no real light has been thrown upon the issue. Commander Peary has megaphoned the statement that Dr. Cook's two Eskimos say he was never out of sight of land, and Dr. Cook has bawled back a request for the scientific data upon which the accusation is based. Commander Peary mentions that he "has Cook nailed," and Dr. Cook, in reply, declares his willingness to submit his scientific observations to a council of the worla's scientists, and abide by their decision. It is a very pretty ouarrei as it stands, and without at.

tempting to prejudice the final decision of the court of public opinion, it may be hinted that it is a matter for genera] congratulation that both the plaintiff and the defendant are Americans. If an American and a Britisher had been ranged on opposite sides in a quarrel of such magnitude, or, worse still, »f an Englishman and German had been rivals, each claiming the laurel wreath of

science at the expense of his competitor, national prejudices might easily have been dangerously inflamed. As the case stands, the Stars and Strjpes must wave over the polar snows, no matter which claimant substantiates his story.