LOSS TO SCIENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 204, 29 August 1934, Page 7

LOSS TO SCIENCE.

One of Australia's Most Eminent

Citizens.

SIR EDGEWORTH DAVID DEAD

(ReceiTed 11.30 a.m.)

SYDNEY, this day.

The death has occurred of Sir Edgeworth David, aged 70. His passing removes one of Australia's most eminent citizens who was distinguished for his greatness of character and his scientific achievements.

The services of Sir Edgeworth were in frequent demand and always ungrudgingly given to the Government in all matters of scientific organisation.

The State Government lias decided to give Sir Edgeworth. a State funeral. He will be the first person in New South Wales, other than a politician, to receive this honour. The Commonwealth Government will co-operate in this mark of respect.

Sir Tannatt William Edgeworth David, geologist and explorer, was born in Wales in 1858, the son of a clergyman. He was educated at Magdalen School, and New College, Oxford. He went out to Now South Wales in 1882 as a member of the Geological Survey, lu 1891 he was appointed professor of geology and physical geography at the Sydney University, and immediately became a leader in the scientific world in Australia. In 1800 he was elected president of the Itoyal Society of New South Wales, and in 1897 led an expedition to the Ellico Islands to superintend the sinking of a bore to ascertain the actual structure of coral reefs. For eminent scientific works ho was awarded many distinctions, and was made a member and a fellow of many scientific organisations, and received honorary degrees irom several universities. He was created a C.M.G. in 1910, and K.B.E. in 1920.

In 1906 he explored the Deccan (India) plateau at the head of the Godaveri River, investigated the cllecte of the San Francisco earthquake, and went to Antarctic with the Shackleton expedition from 1907 to 1909. He headed the party that first climbed Mount Erebus, and also the party which first reached the South Magnetic Pole, on January 16, 1900. Of that expedition Sir Douglae Maweon tells a story illustrating Professor David's coolness and courtesy. They were out together on an expedition in the Antarctic. Maweon went into tho tent to change photographic plates. He heard David's voice call gently: "Mawson, can you come here?" "All right. In a minute." Then, after a pause: "Mawson, I'm afraid I'll have to trouble you." "I'm coming." Finally: "Maweon, I'm sorry, but I'm hanging over a crevaase!"

After ho had raised the Australian Mining Corps he enlisted in it in 1914 in epite of his age, and went to the Western Front, where in 1918 he was appointed geologist to the British Armies. Among the problems he tackled was that of showing the mining engineers how to cope with the water difficulty which was threatening to defeat their efforts to blow up the Messines Ridge. For his services he received the D.5.0..

After resigning his chair in 1924, he made two remarkable geological discoveries, which were announced in 1928. He stated that radio-active evidence abowed that some of the oldest rocks in the world date back 1,600,000,000 years. He found rocks containing perfectly preserved remnants of animal life millions of years older than any hitherto classified by science:—a discovery that places the birth of life far earlier than had been supposed.