WORKERS' EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18051, 27 September 1920, Page 6

WORKERS' EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

LECTURES AT THE MUSEUM,

Under tho auspices of tho Workers' liducatioiuU Association, a kcturo was given in aLu,W US T\ I OU 'attornoon to students oi tho various W.E.A. classes in . Thero wafl tt S ood attaiMiiuu* J-no urst part of tho Jocturo wan doaJripSouth°i al iU tbo ielande °* to* Southern Ocean. Professor Benham opened a most interesting account of tho vaniho chief broods of penguins are the blue penguin the Emperor penguin., ™? sum and the crested penguin. They axe \cry tamo ju the presence of man so lone as they are not molested. The penguin firta on its eggs for 37 days, and during that period tiio female, bird is fed by tho male who goes out to sea and swallows all the food he can hold, then comes ashore, but it is only with great difficulty that ho can clambor up the rocks in this condition When ho eventually reaches his Z f>° some of tho food for her benefit. Penguins walk in an upright po£ tion and haying very short legs, they are easily overbalanced if they attempt J run On examining the skeleton of a penguin it was found that the bones of the win" arm The lecturer next turned his attention to seals, and drew .the attention of his hearers to the fact that it was in the oui-

frorn t s paae * u » ° nl rjtet they differed M^rM? 8 ™^ 18 -,^^ tcettt very th? °fS u f thG do^; thG b 01163 * the limbs could be seen to resemble other land animals. Sails have an elongated body, £hich seems admirably fitted to faciliitato «airly easy and at the samo time speedyoTC? DtS * water. TheyTeep on land and sometimes wander a considerable distance away from the beach. There the male of which is commonly caUed the sea lion and the female tibe sea bear, are perhaps the most common. The leopard lo ?e er ., bo , d y th»n the sea lion, S.T fact tha .* Its breast is covered with I animals occasionally visit the t U ° f r£ 6W ?*& nd > bl,t OTe protects by law. The elephant seal is the largest nf liff j Retimes attaining a length m S^, 1 ' I"" , a very h€avil y iMiit nocly. It tafcps its name from its rrunkofch ?< f- 1^ e .^ Peculiarity of the elephant seal , s ,f« VO ico, that of the male being inefficient, the sound being like that of a man gargling, while, on the other hand, the voice of tho female is very powerful, and may well be compared to the roar of an infnnm*d bull. The lecturer also described the fur seal and the walrus ot the Arctic regions. Tho Professor next described the gnwt variety nf whales, some snocies bemir smaller than the blue shark Whale meat was quite edible. a«d it had jreen said by men who have lived on whaling stations that their flesh is as good as boef When whales become stranded in shallow water they soon die of suffocation owing to their tremendous weight crushing at l " breathln g organs together. WK i D ; S,dmer levered* a most inteiesting lecture on " Maori Curios " There exo eight cases containing these relics in bho Museum, six of them belonging' exclusively to the Otago district Tho lecturer first described the method the Natives used to work up greenstone boulders to articles o* use. Greenstone was chiefly found in tho lf'u" 1 ?' and D ? rt Kivers - I* was first of all broken up into convenient-sized pieces with a Maori hammer. The pieces of greenstone are then polished by rubbine on a standstone slab. Another method of breaking up the greenstone was to saw it PMtly through on one side, then saw it trom the otner sido until it was ready to break straight across. Mr Skinner described a great number of articles made trom G-reonetono for use and for ornament lhe lecturer next dealt with finer made articles such as needles for various purposes, and showed a wonderful collection of nsh hooks, made and used by the Maoris m years gone by. The Maori carvings were next explained, tho lecturcsr showing tho whittling method adopted by the Maori in cutting out those beautiful designs. Cloaks and mats, rook paintings, and Easter Island carvings were amongst the other exhibits shown and explained. A very Jnterestin-g and instructive afternoon was brought to a close by one of the stucients thanking Professor Benham and Mr Slonnor, on behalf of tho Workers' Educational Association:, and calling for a hearty vote of thanks from the students assembled. This was carried by acclamation.