OCEAN RESEARCH

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 95, 16 January 1929, Page 12

OCEAN RESEARCH

THE DANISH EXPEDITION VALUE OF NEW ZEALAND VISIT Well satisfied with the scientific results of their visit to New Zealand, Dr. Johannes Schmidt, chief of the Royal Danish Oeean Research Mission, told the audience at a civic reception to his officers yesterday that they had made observations in the Dominion region of the Pacific Ocean which would be of great value, though their full significance could not be shown until they had been made the object of further study. "I 'may point out,” said Dr. Schmidt, “that the scientific expedition of which I have the honour to be in charge is the first expedition of the kind to come here since Her Majesty's ship Challenger was here in 1874, an event which I am interested to find is well remembered by His Excellency the Governor-General, who was a boy in New Zealand at that time;

"The Dana’s voyage round the world will last'about two years, which does not allow very much time for intensive work in all the regions visited. We are, however, giving a considerable amount of attention to the New Zealand seas. We have worked . from the Kerinadec Islands to Auckland, with some special observations in the Hauraki Gulf, and thence down to the eastward and as far south as the latitude of Stewart Island. "On leaving Wellington we propose to investigate the Tasman Sea off tiie West Coast before proceeding to Australia. The New Zealand region is an extremely interesting part of the Pacific Ocean, and already we have made observations of great value, though their full significance cannot be shown until they have been made the object of further study. "I must congratulate the Dominion on its recently established Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, which brings New Zealand in line with the most advanced of the older civilised countries of the world. 1 feel sure that this new Department will receive the public and political support necessary to enable it .to carry on its work to successful and beneficial ends. "We are sorry not to be able to spend a longer time on this part of our voyage for two reasons. First, in so far as our work off the New Zealand coasts possesses an interest and a practical value for the Dominion, we would like to do as much here as possible. But. alas, the time allowed by our -programme has already been exceeded.”