With minimum equipment it would have been practically hopeless to reach land across the ice. The airmen refuse to admit that they are disappointed at not reaching the Pole. "Although we all hoped to reach the Pole," they say, "as a crown to our efforts, still we are satisfied with the scientific result.
We have observed 160,000 square kilometres, a hitherto unexplored section of the Norwegian part of the Arctic. We took complete observations at the landing place." Amundsen states that he fully concurs with this view.
Of the six men who participated in the Polar flight Amundsen shows the most traces of the hardships that the party underwent, but the others say that this is because Amundsen worked the hardest of all. Amundsen says that on the expedition to the South Pole he met nothing which could be compared with that which he had just undergone.
He would not have believed that such experiences as he had gone through in the last three weeks could ever have befallen him, and he hopes that nobody else will ever have them, adding: "We were literally caught like rats in a trap. Many times the situation was so ugly that we were tempted to throw up the sponge. When finally we started for home everyone realised that it was a case of life and death."
Moray Pl collision
A collision between an Overland car driven by Mr Geo. Leslie, of York Place, and a Ford car, driven by Mr Thos. Cubitt, of Whare Flat, occurred at the corner of Burlington Street and Moray Place at 11.45 on Saturday morning. The Ford car was coming up Burlington Street into Moray Place, and the Overland was making for Burlington Street.
The taxi stand in Moray Place is extending so far down the street that neither motorist saw the other until it was too late to avoid a collision. Mr Cubitt's Ford car came off badly, having one wheel buckled, a tyre torn off, and the chassis thrown out of alignment.
The Overland received a good shaking, and was dented in places, while one tyre was flat. Neither of the drivers was injured in any way.
Fading star
Nova Pictoris, the new star which appeared in the southern heavens three weeks ago and which the week before last attained a maximum brilliancy exceeding that of the lesser of the two principal stars of the Southern Cross, is now diminishing in brightness, although it is still clear to the naked eye. These "novae" are not to be confused with meteors, or even with comets, which belong to our solar system. They are far in the depths of space and are believed, by some, to herald the birth of new world systems.
Rugby player overcomes paralysis
Seven weeks ago, a young man, 19 years of age, was admitted to the Invercargill Hospital with a broken neck. He was partly paralysed, but life was not extinct. The doctors spared no effort in saving a life that hung by so feeble a thread. His neck was placed in a specially-prepared splint, and today he is on the road to complete recovery. The almost fatal accident occurred during a football match at Wyndham.
— ODT, 22.6.1925 (Compiled by Peter Dowden)
