PROFESSOR DAVID.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 467, 27 March 1909, Page 11

PROFESSOR DAVID.

AS SYDNEY SEES HIM. A great crowd had gathered at tho wharf yesterday afternoon, to say farewoll to-many well-known people who were leaving by the Mahono for Australia or for England, and from one end of her berthing to another, there was stir and bustle, exclamations, and hurried last words. No one had time to uso idle eyes, and few noticed a little group standing near the last gangway, talking quietly and with evident interest among themselves. Two of these were university professors, a third the Government geologist, and the centre of the group was a man in a grey suit, soft felt hat, and conspicuous light blue tio that matohed tho keen blue eyes, a man whose eyes looked rather tired, and whose clean-shaven face was scored with a thousand delicate little lines, the result of exposure to bitter, biting cold, and long fatigue—Professor David, who was flying through Wellington on his way from the South Magnetic Pole to his home in Sydney. The last time "Dominica" had seen him was in his lecture-Toom at Sydney University—shortly after his return from another scientific expedition, that time to a place of tropical heat, the island of Funa Futi, in the Ellico Group, where, for six months, the professor, with his wife, and a party of scientific assistants, had been boring into the depths of the island, to find out how it was made. The term after he came back to Sydney University, the first-year students, who had always to take a term in Professor David's department, were given to understand that if they gave a correct answer to a question concerning the various theories of coral formation, they would probably get through their examination on that point, and for days before the examination little groups might be seen, armed with vividly coloured chalks, showing each other how the coral insect might do its work, so that when tho day came, "Dominica" was not quite sure whether coral grew in the ocean, or up a tree, and has always since been afraid that her examination paper must have faithfully reflected her state of mind.

Professor David's lectures havo always been very interesting and popular, and he had a way all his own of delivering them, and to this day one has a clear picture of him as he used- to look there. He never faced the students, but stood sideways on, wrapping his gown round him in classic folds, or rather in the manner of an Italian conspirator, and, indeed, with his clear-cut features, and pale complexion, his quiet, gliding step, and this drapery of black stuff, one could easily picture him as about to form so dire scheme. It would bo stating the case mildly, to say that he

has always been popular with his students; he is beloved, and the charm of the man's personality, with his energy and the enthusiasm he shows in his work, have made the geological school at Sydney University one of its most successful departments. One great secret of his influence with his students is the interest he takes in them individually "The professor never forgets a student who has passed through his classes." said his wife one day, and his ex-pupils like to cherish that belief. "You simply can't help working for a man like that," said one of his students who has since distinguished himself in his own line. "You love the man, and it is. for hi 3 sake at first that you love' the work." A great feature of the professor's training has always been his expeditions with the students to all sorte of places of geological uiterest. As regarded the first year students who were merely being allowed to taste tho subject, with a view to deciding whether to go on with it in succeeding years, the expedition would take the form of a day's excursion to some place near Sydney—four miles along a sandy beach with tho thermometer at 102, and a professor as keen as though it wore only 58 that is one pupil's sole memory of the scientific journeys, but geological students in later years would be taken for a. week, or two, or three, to some place liko Newcastle where they would be set to dig right into the coal for themselves like navvies, and get tho most practical insight into tho subject of coal formations, or they would go to Kiama, or Kosciusko, always returning with tho feeling that these had been the most delightful days in the year, and bound more firmly than over to tho professor's chariot wheels.

It is eighteen years since Professor David accepted the Chair of Geology at the Sydney University, and before that ho was in the Government Geological Department. His great subject is the action of ice on the earth's surface, and that is, of course, what mado him such a valuable member of the Nimrod expedition. He is a fine classical scholar, a closo student of Shakespeare, widely road in modern literature, and he is said to road and recite exquisitely, an accomplishment that, as most undergraduates know, is not at all common among professors. And withal the professor is a man of marked personality. Ho is never troubled by useless conventionalities, going steadily on his way contented and untroubled, happy in the possession of a delightful homo and the companionship of a wifo who is in bor own lino quite as interesting as he. Mrs. David camo out to Sydney to take the position of principal of a training collego for teachers. Sho is a woman of great culture and brilliant mind. It was sho who wlroto a delightful book about their sixmonths at Funa Futi. Sbo is interested in many questions affeotim: women, is a leacl-

ine mombor of the Sydney 'Women's Club, takes a keen interest in the affairs of the Burwood Domestio Training College, and is in short recognised as one of the women best worth meeting in all Sydney. They have a home in. tho Bluo Mountains within easy distance from Sydney, and there their three children received all their earlier education, coming down later on to Sydney, where it was quickly proved how effectivo that education had been.