A PROPOSED GRANT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20713, 5 November 1930, Page 14

A PROPOSED GRANT.

0 , S ! r >— Wr - 1 'eld s quotation from ohakespearo in his letter of Thursday, October 30. leaves no doubts as to who wrote the Shakespearean plays—it was not Bacon but Pope, apparently. But it is not to'criticise Mr. Field as a Shakespearean authority, or even as a physician unfettered by the bonds that hold the majority of our doctors to the straight and narrow path of conventionality, that I write. It i s as an astronomer and seer that Mr. Field arouses my ire. Mr. Field mav havo predicted tho reappearance of "Falcon Island and many other ovents. I do not know. All his predictions which 1 have seen havo fallen lamentably flat. Of course, if ono keeps on predicting regularly one is bound to be correct sometimes. That is tho principle the meteorologists appear to work on, and perhaps it. is Mr. Field's system also! But perhaps I am too harsh on a genuino prophet. Now that public attention is focussed on this matter, Mr. Field is presented with a golden opportunity to prove his assertions. Would he let us know tho dates and places of publication of all his predictions in, say, 1929. That would enable us to see how many correct and incorrect predictions were made. It would also enable us to verify how MiField predicted tho New Zealand earthquakes of_ that year. My knowledge of Mr. Field's predictions and Parliamentary petitions is limited, but it is sufficient to enable me to endorse, in face of such strong opposition, what Professor Burbidgo has written on this subject, Tho wonderful discovery he made in 1921 of the sun's rotation has not yet been published for the information of astronomers. The New Zealand Institute in 1925 appointed tho Dominion astronomer and one of the Dominion's ablest mathematicians to investigate his theories, but they could not secure from Mr. Field anv reasoned thesis explaining how his predictions were made. Mr. Field claims able scientists abroad support him. I would like to know of their., and whether thej have beer, more privileged than New Zealand't scientists, in being afforded an opportunity to read Mr. Field's complete thesis. R. A. Mclntosh, F.R.A.S. •