THE NEW ZEALANDERS

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 42, 19 February 1935, Page 10

THE NEW ZEALANDERS

"HAVE DONE SPLENDIDLY"

t>R. POTAKA'S IMPRESSIONS

(By Telegraph.) (Special to the "Evening Post.") ";• ■'-■' DUNEDIN, This Day. - The only New Zealanders who spent a winter on the ice were Dr. Lewis H. Potaka, of. Nelson, who at short notice answered the call for a medical officer, and Mr. Sissons,,radio operator. Among the deck hands were two Christchurch men, Messrs. Robert Round, of Heathcote Valley, an engineer at Addington railway workshops, and Cecil Melrose, of Springfield Road, both of whom were employed as deck hands on the Jacob Ruppert, and Robinson, of Auckland. : "The New Zealand men that have been connected with the. expedition have universally done splendidly," said Admiral Byrd. ."They have been very fine all the way through. Dr. Potaka was superb. He operated 'on Joseph Pelter, the official aerial photographer, for appendicitis. Some thought that Pelter could not survive an operation under1 those conditions, but he is now in good shape. Dr. Potaka carried out the operation before he had time to be settled on the ice, and .that Pelter is alive today is a credit to .the doctor. > . ■ ' - "The radio man, Sissohs, could not have been- -finer. He was sometimes on duty for three or four days on end. He was- loaned by the Government, and I want to express my appreciation to the Postmaster-General for giving permission to Sissons and allowing such a capable man to come with us." Messrs. Round and Melrose both enjoyed their comparatively brief trip on the Jacob Ruppert, but Dr. Potaka's opinions of his year's stay on the ice barrier are mixed. "I am glad to get back, but.l would not say I have not enjoyed the experience," he said. From a medical viewpoint his work was, a sinecure, as there was very little to do. When one had a crowd of fit men as likely-patients one.did not expect much illness, and the health of the men had been good throughout. ■ GERMS IN ANTARCTICA. "I do not know of any self-respecting germ which Would live down there," laughingly replied the doctor, in declining to discuss bacteriology as applying'at Little America. He scouted the commonly-accepted idea that no germs could live in the -low temperatures experienced at the Bay of. Whales. Considerable prominence had been given in American papers to attacks of colds, but he attached no significance whatever to that ailment. He personally had several colds, with sore throat and 'ja. cough, but none were serious. The health of the men was excellent. Dr. Potaka was dubbed "The Original Excavator," as his spare-time hobby was to go digging in the snow and ice for material left behind by the first Byrd expedition.- Life, he said, could be quite interesting in the Antarctic, as there was plenty of diversion. The main.thing was to guard one's self against one's self. The Antarctic was vastly different from what he had expected after reading many books dealing with the continent. It was impossible to get the right' conception of the continent unless one lived there. "But such places are all right only for a short time," the doctor said. "There is only ice and snow. Little America was like a city. I visited one hut' where fifteen men were located only twjelve times during the year. To live there was like living in a city."