VENUE PAR EXCELLENCE FOR SCIENTISTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22867, 10 February 1949, Page 4

VENUE PAR EXCELLENCE FOR SCIENTISTS

_AI BANISH scientist, commenting on the choice of New Zealand as the venue for the 1949 Pacific science congress, commented: "What a magnificent preparation your country has made for welcoming zoologists.” He was referring to the discovery of the notornis in the country west of Te Anau. Other recent discoveries of great scientific interest have been the laughing owl and the South Island thrush.

But New Zealand, it would appear, has also made preparations to welcome visiting geologists, vulcanologists and geophysicists who include some of the most imminent scientists in the world. The spectacle of Ngauruhoe in full eruption will be of special interest to them and they have hastened to Tongariro National Park for a ringside view.

. T he mountainous nature of New Zealand is one of its most striking physical characteristics, less than one-quarter of the land surface lying below the 650 ft. contour. In the North Island the higher mountains occupy about one-tenth of the surface. Of the four highest volcanic peaks only one, Egmont, is classed as extinct. The others—Ruapehu,'Ngauruhoe and Tongariro—closely grouped together have for long been uncertain in their habits and in May, 1948, when Ngauruhoe was last in eruption, Ruapehu kept it company.

Although scientists are not disposed to believe that the activities of volcanoes in different parts of the world may be linked, eruptions in other lands and activity in New Zealand are often closely connected in time. It is said to be a coincidence. For instance,, there was recently a violent eruption on Panay Island, in the Philippines. Only last Sunday a volcano on Honshu, Japan, burst into eruption after being dormant for 88 years. There seems to be little doubt that subterranean activity in New Zealand will always be present. In its relationship to our extensive thermal regions, which are one of the Dominion’s major assets as a tourist attraction and great potential source of power, changes that take place are of lively concern to all.