The Far South
NE of the consequences of New Zealand’s position in space is that Polar expeditions call here both going and coming. We have therefore social ‘and personal as well as more serious reasons for interesting ourselves in the Antarctic. We get to know the men who compose
these -expeditions, and knowing them get to like them. It is still an influence in our lives that some of us knew Shackleton and spoke to Scott, and if those personal contacts are more difficult now that Polar parties|are armies and not families, there is much ‘friendliness in New Zealand for Admiral Byrd. The child who never quite grows up in any of us may feel a little jealous of the Admiral, compare his equipment with Scott’s, and wish that some British expedition had sailed: with even a tenth of the resources made available to this latest American expedition; but we know that we are being childish when we think like that. The Americans went south for two reasons-to test men and materials, and to advance the frontiers of science. They could not do the first if the men and materials were not there, and it would have been foolish to attempt the second without all the equipment science has already made available. It was in no sense at all an attemrpt to capture the Pole historically; to snatch it away from Amundsen and Scott and pass it on as Byrd’s. No one has ever thought of tearing a page out of Norwegian and English schoolbooks and pasting it into American. Byt most Americans think that if a thing is worth doing at all it is worth doing with all the resources they can command. Instead of being jealous or critical we should be grateful that so much more is known about Antarctica since the American navy went there than anyone knew before; and deep down most of us are grateful.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 404, 21 March 1947, Page 5
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320The Far South New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 404, 21 March 1947, Page 5
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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