Mid-Winter In Antarctica

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31091, 21 June 1966, Page 6

Mid-Winter In Antarctica

New Zealanders at Scott Base will celebrate Mid - Winter’s Day tomorrow, and the end of nearly two months of total darkness. The occasion will also mark the tenth anniversary of the establishment of Scott Base as New Zealand’s permanent Antarctic station.

On the Antarctic continent the sun is at its lowest, the night at its blackest on June 22. The pale noon twilight then begins to lengthen each day, and the men know they are half-way through the long, cold winter. The dinner celebration of Mid-Winter’s Day has become an Antarctic tradition. Tomorrow greetings will be exchanged by the men of bases maintained on the continent by Britain, the United States, Russia, New Zealand, Australia, France, Belgium, Chile, and the Argentine. Mid-Winter’s Day will also be celebrated in Christchurch

by the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Antarctic Society, which will bold the traditional dinner. The president of the branch (Mr R. M. Heke) was foreman of the construction unit which built Scott Base in 1956-57.

Official guests at the dinner will include the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr G. Manning) and Mrs Manning; Mr Adrian Hayter, a former leader at Scott Base, and Mrs Hayter; and Commander W. H. Withrow, commander of the United States’ Navy base at Harewood, and Mrs Withrow. Mr Hayter will be the guest speaker. Also present at the dinner will be Mr R. B. Thomson, superintendent of the Antarctic Division, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and Mr C. Clark, leader of the 1966-67 party, as members of the New Zealand Society. Mr Thomson has celebrated Mid-Win-ter’s Day at Scott Base and at the Australian base at Wilkes Station while serving with the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition. The first Scott Base eele-

bration of Mid-Winter’s Day was held on Friday, June 21, 1957, when the temperature was plus five degrees. Festivities began at 6 p.m. with cocktails, then dinner at 7 p.m., and concluded at 5.30 am. next day.

The photograph shows Scott Base early in 1957. The photograph also appears on the menu for the society’s Canterbury branch dinner.