VOLCANO STUDY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 247, 18 October 1926, Page 9

VOLCANO STUDY.

SYSTEMATIC RESEARCH, A GOVERNMENT WATCHMAN. TO INVESTIGATE CHANGES. (By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.'"; I WELLINGTON, this day. Many times it has been urged that the Government should undertake a systematic study of volcanic and thermal activity- in New Zealand, such as has for some years been carried out in Hawaii and in Japan. Scientific bodies and eminent geologists strongly supported the proposal, which the Government accepted j some time ago, with a promise to appoint an expert to investigate and watch activity 7 and changes in the district between Rotorua and Ruapehu. No official announcement has yet been made as to the appointment, but it is understood that Mr. Grange, of the staff of the Geological Survey, is to be detailed for this interesting task under the new Department of Science. He is to be given the necessary motor-car for travelling the large district, and he is to carry out a survey of the volcanic country, besides keeping an eye on the many scenes of volcanic activity, and reporting regularly on the condition of the various craters and groups of hot springs and geysers. The term of this engagement as vulcanologist is two years, but once it has begun it is tolerably certain it will be continued as a permanent addition to the branches of necessary scientific research in the Dominion. Link in a Great Chain. Some of those who take an interest in our volcanic regions thought it would be necessary to send abroad and engage some Americans or other experts to advise us about our volcanoes and geysers. Fortunately, wiser counsels prevailed. It seems more sensible to set some of our own men on to the work, and presently to send him abroad in order to gain added experience in such places as Japan. Java and the Mauna Loa stations in Hawaii. The study of our volcanoes is necessarily linked up with other regions of the kind in and around the great Pacific. Ngauruhoe volcano, no doubt, will be the seat of activity on which our volcanologist's attention will chiefly be directed. It certainly is time a regular record was kept of Ngauruhoe's recurring spasms of intense activity. Tt may be possible to make a kind of periodicity table,, and perhaps to forecast eruptions to some extent. Spasmodic Investigations. It is rather astonishing indeed, that such important natural phenomena have been reported upon thus far in only a spasmodic irregular fashion.. Tf one wishes for instance, to study the history of Ngauruhoe's eruptions, it is only possible to do so by collating the newspaper reports of the day and occasional papers read by visiting geologists and others who make holiday trips to the Tongariro country. The last annual report of the Tongariro National Park Board contains interesting data about the eruption of last winter, and these reports' in years to come will, no doubt, provide valuable sources of information for our students of volcano-logy. But careful continuous recrds are imperative, and it will be necessary also to establish a regular interchange of intelligence on all phases of volcanic action with observers in other parts of the Pacific. No doubt a seismological station will be established in the heart of our Rotorua-Taupo country, and serious earthquakes and eruptions may be predicted with some degree of precision, just as they had been predicted in Japan and Hajvaii. Professor Benson, of the Otago University, who is one of the delegates to the scientific conference in Japan, intends visiting Java on his way home from Tokio, in order to investigate volcanic action in this great seat of activity, and his observations there, will, without doubt, be most useful in the bearing they have been on volcanological research in New Zealand.