The Ross Dependency

In the year 1867 the United States purchased Alaska from Russia for the sum of 7,200,000 dollars. At the time the Americans did not under­ stand why money was being spent on buying a desert. A hundred years later one of the largest oilfields in the world was discovered there at Prudhoe Bay. There seems little doubt that large mineral resources will be found and exploited in the Canadian Arctic. In Greenland min­ ing is now being planned on a large scale, under conditions comparable to those of the Antarctic. No economically exploitable deposits of minerals have been found in Antarctica, but there is no doubt that large deposits exist. Whether the progress of technology will enable such deposits to be located and economically mined is not clear. Experts confidently state that at present this is not feasible. Forty years ago an expert asserted that during our geological period there would be no transit of the Northwest Passage by ship. The voyage was accomplished in 1969 by a large commercial tanker. Economic resources, and nothing else should be the reason for New Zealand activities in the Ross Dependency. Other reasons have been advanced. One is scientific research. Yet this could be done far more cheaply by supplying funds to existing research projects in New Antarctic budget is spent on logistics and Zealand for much of our support rather than research itself. Just keeping alive in Antarctica is an expensive business.