Believing in success

Captain Amundsen is confident of passing over the North Pole in an Italian dirigible of the semi-rigid type from Spitzbergen to Point Barrow, Alaska, in May. He declared there was not the slightest doubt that he would make it. He would be flying in the Polar regions when the atmospheric conditions were ideal. Captain Amundsen doubts the existence of a great continent in the Polar region. So far as he was able to judge from his years of experience in exploration work he believed that the Pole was surrounded by a million square miles of water and an enormous field of ice. He deeply regretted that the Wilkins expedition had decided to use aeroplanes in its Polar flight. He believes that aeroplanes in their present stage of development are useless for polar work. With a dirigible there was no necessity for searching for non-existent landing places and a greater possibility of success. — Reuter

Subsidy vowed

Weighty arguments were presented by the deputation which interviewed the City Council at its meeting this week with the purpose of soliciting a fairly substantial contribution in aid of the Otago Museum extension fund. The extension movement was started by a number of citizens who recognise that the potentialities of the Museum are not being adequately fulfilled. A considerable amount of voluntary support has been proffered, and the Government has undertaken to grant a pound for pound subsidy when £25,000 has been secured. The total of £50,000 would suffice to carry out the design which the Extension Committee has in view. The City Council is asked to contribute £5000 — an immoderate figure, to say the least, in relation to what has been done in a similar direction by other municipalities. Moreover, the promoters of the enterprise would be willing to accept the assistance by way of instalments spread over a number of years.

It would be platitudinous to enlarge upon the general value of properly equipped museums as civic institutions. It is a value which can hardly be over-estimated from the viewpoints of aesthetic amenity, educational culture and technical science. The Otago Museum is liberally equipped in every respect except structural capacity. Its visible contents are of great interest and importance, but the basements hide a mass of possessions. Ethnological and historic treasures are stowed away in inglorious obscurity in unsunned cellars. The Museum is a University institution in one sense, but it is also a public institution. The University Council has maintained it financially for many years. As Mr Skinner reminded the City Council, if the Museum were exclusively a University affair it need not be open to the public at all. We have no doubt that the Finance Committee of the Council will give the matter careful attention, perhaps with a prepossession towards a favourable decision. — editorial — ODT, 26.2.1926