THE TRICK OF THE YEAR.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9677, 29 December 1909, Page 4

THE TRICK OF THE YEAR.

Jlf Dr Cook is hd imposter, who neither climbed Mount McKinley nor I reached the .North Pole, he has dis- j played some resource in mnkine: money and acquiring notoriety. His imposition roust certainly rank as the trick of the year, if not of the century, and suggests that the civilised world must henceforth demand corroborative evidence in considering any claim which has hitherto been regarded as sufficiently substantiated by the word of a reputable man. Neither Lieutenant Peary nor Dr Cook was accompanied by a European, in Lieutenant Peary's case an available European being left behind in order that tlie "glory" of discovery might not foe shared. Granted that Dr Cook js an impostor, there is still no reason to doubt Lieutenant Peary's word, and the worid will gladly accept in his case what appears to be the universal agreement < of men of science and geographers, ' although there is apparently little 1 corroborative evidence adduced. In 1 Sir Ernest Sbackleton's case there is j no possibility of error He was ac- j c

companied by three competent companibns. Observations were taken and checked; elevations worked out; a carefully-worked map compiled Unless we are tc take the supported words of solitary travellers, and in this be always exposed to chance of imposition, we should have similar evidence presented with every claim to renown. The inducements to fraud and imposition in such cases w?re not hitherto ohvious; but Dr Cool> '.iaa given a £'25,000 explanation, an i nis escape with the proceeds of his campaign emphasises the need for a new rule dealing with the solitary explorer.