EXPEDITION TO THE SNARES

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 14533, 29 November 1947, Page 2

EXPEDITION TO THE SNARES

SCIENTIFIC PARTY'S INVESTIGATIONS Tauranga Businessman Member Of Crew Magnetic Survey To Be Made (Special to The Times) Included in the crew of the vessel Alert which conveyed a party of scientists to The Snares, 56 miles south of Stewart Island, recently, with the object of making a study of bird and seal life, was Mr P. F. Carter, a prominent Tauranga businessman and member of the Tauranga Yacht and Power Boat Club. After sailing from Bluff and delivering the party at its destination, the vessel is at present engaged in delivering stores to various lighthouses. This task will occupy about 10 days, after which the vessel will pick the scientists up and take them to Milford Sounds, where further investigations are to be 111 cl (IG. Members of the party include Dr R. A. Falla, director of the Dominion Museum; Mr H. F. Baird, director of Magnetic Survey in New Zealand; D.r C. A. Fleming, geologist and ornithologist; Messrs Edgar F. Stead, of Christchurch, the wellknown ornithologist, Roland Stead and H. Richards and Major R. A. Wilson. Mr F. Newcombe, an officer of the wild life division of the Department of Interna] Affairs, was to join the party at Pegasus. One of the world's leading ornithologists, Dr Robert C. Murphy, chairman of the department of birds at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, is also a member of the expedition. Dr Murphy came to New Zealand with two specific purposes in mind. One is to gain information of bird life in one of the small outlying islands of the Dominion on the verge of the Sub-Antarctic for the installation of an exhibit in the Whitney Memorial Hall, the new home of the American Museum's department of birds. The other is the selection of a South Island scene for the reconstruction of primitive natural life history in this country. He hopes to have the display of a moa in its proper setting.

Dr Murphy will make colour films of natural history subjects and anything distinctive will be included. These films will be shown to more than 2,000,000 children a year at the American Museum and will give his fellow countrymen a clearer and more detailed picture of New Zealand life.

Mr Baird's object in accompanying the expedition is to reoccupy the magnetic survey station that was established on The Snares in 1907, and which has not since been visited. In an interview Mr Baird explained that magnetic surveys were global in extent and were regarded as international responsibilities. It was known that the earth was a magnet, but not why. Certain slow changes occurred all over the world, in most places in regular cycles, but in others not so consistently. It was necessary, therefore, every 10 years or so that each country should measure the extent of these changes. The information was pooled at an international headquarters and scientists analysed it in the hope that they would be able to deduce from the evidence and other things why the earth was a magnet. Information was also necessary to keep navigation charts accurate.

Besides doing a magnetic survey, Mr Baird will also be in charge of the radio telephone, which will operate on a daily schedule with Awarua and will also keep the party in touch with the vessel Alert. He is particularly interested in the receiving part, as he will have to pick up time signals to rate a ship's chronometer to do the sunshots.