NOTED EXPLORER

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 2, 4 January 1937, Page 9

NOTED EXPLORER

SIR DOUGLAS MAWSON BIG SCIENCE CONGRESS The well-known explorer, Sir Douglas Mawson, accompanied by his daughter, Miss P. Mawson, arrived by the Awatea from Sydney today. Sir Douglas is the outgoing president of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science, and his primary object in visiting the Dominion is to attend the congress of the association, which opens in Auckland on January 12 and will continue for a week. Sir Douglas said that after the congress the visitors would disperse, and many hoped to see as much of New Zealand as possible, in the time available to them. "Most scientists are interested in such things as New Zealand has to show," said Sir Douglas in an interview aboard the Awatea. "I have been invited to have a preliminary view, before the congress opens, of some of the hot springs and volcanoes, and with others am to be piloted by Dr. P. Marshall. We are leaving this morning direct for Wanganui, and will work our way up to Auckland in time for the opening of the congress. One of the places I shall be visiting is Mayor Island. After the conference I shall return to Wellington, and will be in New Zealand a month or more. "I am particularly interested, and have been for many years, in some of the hydro-electric possibilities in New Zealand, and I hope to look further into them while I am here." In reply to a question, Sir Douglas said he had no big exploration trips in view. "We are busy publishing reports," he said. "A lot of them are in, the press just now." Sir Douglas referred particularly to one report dealing with the birds of Antarctica and sub-Antarctica, the work of the New Zealand ornithologist, Mr. R. A. Falla. The report was a fine one, said Sir Douglas, and should be of special interest to New Zealanders, as it dealt with many birds seen in and around New Zealand itself. Sir Douglas added that he is to be succeeded as president of the Australian and New .Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science by Sir David Rivett, who is the chief executive officer of the Bureau of Science and Industry in Australia. A number of others who are to attend the science congress also arrived by the Awatea, among them being Professor E. W. Skeats (Melbourne University), Professor H. S. Summers (Melbourne University), Dr. G. D. Osborne (lecturer in geology at Sydney University), Professor L. G. Melville (Sydney), Professor P. Hytten (Sydney), Mr. P. Singleton (Melbourne), and Dr. W. G. Woolnough (Canberra).

About 400 scientists and many eminent men who have made their mark in the scientific world will be attending the conference.