PROFESSOR AND EXPLORES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17708, 17 February 1921, Page 8

PROFESSOR AND EXPLORES.

COLONEL HIRAM BINGHAM.

VISIT TO NEW ZEALAND. Colonel Hiram Bingham, a noted American explorer, and Professor of LatinAmerican History at Yale University, i« at jjiesent visiting Auckland, having arfrom Samoa by the steamer Navua last evening. Colonel Bingham, who is a native of Honolulu, in addition to holding several American university degrees, is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Royal Anthropological Institute, London. He has done considerable exploration work in South America, principally in Peru, where he made a close - : study of the territory formerly occupied by the Incas. He h=is made five expeditions to South America for the Yale University and the National Geographical 0 j Society. His investigations have covered ... -: { many fields of scientific research, including zoology and botany, and on his last visit g§j to the Southern Continent he was accompanied by about a dozen scientist? and their assistants. Colonel Bingham served in the American an? service in Prance in 1918. On: his visit to New Zealand, which''.;;■ will extend over two or three weeks, he is accompanied by Mr. G. H. Myers, of Washington, who was formerly in the American forestry service, " y;: Having travelled from Honolulu to Pago Pago by the Ventura, Colonel Bingham spent three weeks in Samoa. He states that he was, on the whole, favourably impressed with what he saw of the natives of the islands. There had, he remarked last evening, been some discontent among . the natives both of American Samoa and of the territory now controlled by the New Zealand Government under the mandate from the League of Nations, but the trouble appears to have moderated . considerably. Much of the trouble that had arisen appeared to have been due to the failure of the native mind to readily com- " prehend the economic changes brought about by the war. The rise in the cost of living was one cause of discontent, but the murmurings on this score now appeared to be subsiding. Colonel Bingham's close knowledge of Hawaii and its natives, who have so much in common with the Maoris, has led him' to look forward with interest to an opportunity of obtaining some first-hand information regarding the history and characteristics of the Maoris. After a short stay in the Dominion he will proceed from Wellington to San Francisco by the mail steamer.