MAORI DOCTOR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 39, 15 February 1934, Page 11

MAORI DOCTOR.

SOUTHWARD-BOUND. TO JOIN BYRD EXPEDITION. MAY REMAIN A YEAR. - Short, sturdy, and uncommunicative, Dr. L. H. Potaka, of Nelson, -who has ■ been chosen to spend the winter in Little America as doctor to Rear- - Admiral Richard E. Byrd's Antarctic ' Expedition in the place of Dr. Guy Shirey, who has fallen ill, arrived in ! Dunedin yesterday and set out to obtaining an outfit suitable for the *; Antarctic. He had little to say to the reporter who met him in Cliristchurch, confining himself chiefly to quoting the famous statesman who said, "Wait and see." I As he stepped from the service car - which brought him down from the ' North, he claspcd in his arms, together ; with other luggage, a copy of Mr. G. H. Ponting's "The Great White South." "Well, they wanted somebody, and I * happened to be free," he said in answer » to the question why lie had offered himi self for the position. He added that he bad been on the point of departing for Samoa when the request for a doctor for the expedition had been made, and - had decided in favour of thp Antarctic 1, as being more interesting. ? " Wait and See." * Dr. Potaka was asked, says the T "Press," whether he thought the cold of polar regions would suit him, since ; he is a full-blooded Maori, but replied briefly; "Wait and see. That is hard * to say yet." The same answer was made when he was asked if he intended » to spend the full year with the expedis tion, but he added: "I might not last " as long as that myself." Under pres- ; sure he admitted that if all went well * he would probably stay in Little America until the expedition returned. Dr. Potaka was born at Rata, near " Rangitikei, .'52 years ago. He was 1 educated at Wanganui Collegiate School, r and took his medical degrees at Otago t University. He was a house surgeon in the Nelson Public Hospital for a year and a half, and then practised at * Murchison for three years and a half. * Since leaving Murchison he has been * "relieving medical officer at the Nelson Hospital. Though Dr. Potaka admitted that he ; had played football for Wanganui Col- * he* denied the statement that he had been an All Black, or had repre- - gen ted Wanganui province on the foot- * ball field. "That was a cousin of mine, « he remarked. f To Meet Byrd's Ship. Mr. J. H. Duncan, manager of H. L. 1 Tapley' and Co., Ltd., agents for the " Bvrd Expedition, gave some further information about Dr. Potaka's niovements. He would join the Discovery 11. -t port Chalmers on Wednesday after- * noon. The Discovery 11. would be met « at a point about 700 miles north of ' Little America by the Bear of Oakland, : to which Dr. Potaka would be transi ferred and in which he would be taken ; to Little America. Later the Bear of : Oakland would bring Dr. Shircy back j to New Zealand. „-- - « - Dr. Potaka is procuring the greater t part of his outfit in Dunedin before he 6 ails, much special equipment in the way ; of clothing being necessary before he be ready to face the Antarctic "JLSpeed, however, is essential, since the lives of members of the expedition m " Little America are endangered _by the •. absence of a doctor, and little time will be wasted in Dunedin. Indeed, every ** effort will be made to make the stay of the Discovery 11. in Port Chalmers "as short as possible.