PAN-PACIFIC CONGRESS

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 206, 28 August 1920, Page 17

PAN-PACIFIC CONGRESS

SCIENTIFIC PROBLEMS

By DR. CHAS. CHILTON,

Professor of Biology, Canterbury College, New Zealand. WHAT IT IS. The Ban-Pacific Scientific Congress is a gathering of men of science of all kinds who are interested in the scientific problems that are connected with the (Pacific Ocean. In the preliminary notice calling the meeting it is etated that "the purpose of the Congress is to outline scientific problems of the Pacific Ocean region, and to suggest methods for their solution; to make a critical inventory of existing knowledge and to devise plans for future studies. It is anticipated that this Congress will formulate for publication a programme of research which will serve as a guide for co-operate work for individuals, institutions, and governmental agencies."

The enumeration of these Pacific Ocean problems will naturally be made at tlie Congress when it meets, but it is evident that they are many and various and that New Zealand is directly concerned and will be most closely involved in them for years to come. The questions that centre around the native races of the Pacific Islands and of the countries bordering on that ocean will in all probability be the first to suggest themselves. •Whence did these races come? How are they related to ono another and how to the natives of other parts of the world? What steps should be taken to investigate their habits and customs, their languages, and to preserve all possible records, material and traditional, of their past 'history? More important still—what is to be their future in the struggles that' must necessarily ensue as human 'beings increase in numbeT on tbe earth and men of other races and customs force tbeir way more and more into the lands of the Pacific? Here the matters to be investigated by the Congress 'border closely on political and economic considerations, and must form the sure basis of ascertained fact on which future statesmen will build the policy of the nations. There are other matters that at present appear to be of more purely scientific interest—the geological history of the islands, of their volcanoe and coral formations. These bear directly on fundamental problems of the earth's structure and of the fbrmation of those great surface features with which we are familiar. Has the Pacific Ocean always been a wide and deep ocean since "it was first formed or are the numerous islands scattered over it remnants of a wide extending continental area now submerged beneath the surface and indicated only by the higher lands built up by volcanic action or crowned by the coral extracted from the waters of the ocean during the countless ages by the coal polyps? Here the history of the animals and plants of the Pacific region is of special interest and importance to check the results obtained from purely geological considerations, and to suggest other lines of inquiry. Once more the scientific problems touch upon those of economics. As the nations increase in number the problem of supplying food for all becomes more urgent. In the islands of the Pacific there grow fruits and grains useful as staple foods or as additions thereto—rice, cocoanut, pineapple, banana and many others. In the past sufficient of these has been provided by bountiful Nature with the minimum of exertion on the part of those who benefit, but can this continue as the mouths increase and the struggle for existence becomes more severe? Hitherto also these natural products have been almost isolated from those of the great continents on which artificial methods of agriculture have been so long pursued, and they have been largely free from the insect and fungal pests that have developed side by .side with the growths of agricultural methods. What will happen when the natural conditions are disturbed by increasing commerce? Wiil it be possible to keep out the pests or to control them if they do slip in? The call for immediate assistance by the entomologist and the plant pathologist Is urgent.

XEW ZEALAND'S INTEREST IN THE CONGRESS.

I In the ever-increasing rapidity of the ' improvement of means of transport and the shortening of the time required for inter-communication between* the nations no people in the world can afford to remain isolated, even if that were possible. But New Zealand has more than a general interest in Pacific problems. She lies in the Pacific Ocean itself or on its immediate confines; for the origin of her fauna and flora, including her aboriginal population, we have to look to that ocean, and much speculation has already been made as to her connection in the past with the masses of land that lie to the north. Her future connectiou will be much more intimate and more vitally important. This would be true if we considered only the main islands ,of New Zealand, the North and South Islands, and those closely adjacent thereto. But she has already overstepped these narrow limits. For many years she has had charge of the Cook Islands lying far to the east, and now she has to control the destinies of the Samoan Islands previously held by Germany. These Pacific lands require treatment essentially different from the measures adopted on the main land, and no sure guide is possible without a full knowledge of the conditions of the native inhabitants and of the natural productivity of the lands on which they live. Fortunately these questions have not been studied de novo. Many similar difficulties have been attacked and to a large extent been overcome elsewhere— in the Hawaiian Islands and in the Dutch colonies on the borders of the Pacific. To profit by this experience and to take her due place in the performance of the work that future years will bring, New Zealand must watch closely the results of the Pan-Pacific congress, and be adequately represented in any permanent institution that may be set up for the continuance of the investigations which the congress hopes to initiate. Honolulu, July 27, 1920.