SCIENCE CONGRESS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18760, 13 January 1923, Page 6

SCIENCE CONGRESS

INTERESTING ADDRESSES. THE SCALE OF EVOLUTION. POSITION OF BIRDS. PROFESSOR DENHAM'S VIEWS. (Psa United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, January 12. Before the ethnological and anthropological section of the Science Congress this morning. Captain Pitt Rivers, T'.R. AT., delivered Ids presidential address, taking as Ids subject ‘‘Sonic Problems in Mental Anthropology and the Problem of Civilisation.” Mental anthropology, he wild, was a recent arrival amongst the sciences, but, young as it was, it. was being asked to deal with vital problems. After detailing what ho considered to bo the essential features of this latest subdivision of the main science of anthropology, Captain Pitt Rivers proceeded to discuss its importance in relation to our dealings with the uncivilised peoples whom wo were called upon to govern, particularly in the Pacific. He pictured how contact with Europeans was altering the whole outlook of the native populations. Therefore in their proper government it was necessary that wo should endeavour to discover on what principles their communities were built and whatwere the factors working for social cohesion amongst them. The ethnography of Papua, and the Melanesian and Mieronesian communities of the Western Pacific, showed three principal factors of social integration—(l) chieftainship, (2) magic and sorcery, (3) a system of exchange of gifts, partly economic and partly ceremonial, and non-economic. Amongst these people the tribal law a.nd tribal morality were unwritten, and needed no police and no established Church to .enforce them; yet they wore far less transgressed than ‘ European

law and morality. In spite of this fact, the whole history of European contact with the natives of the Pacific, especially the recent British administration, had been a story of wilful destruction of native culture and morality in a vain endeavour lo replace it with culture and morality, neither capable of being thoroughly absorbed or of ever proving efficient. The speaker then proceeded to discuss the importance of the plurality of wives amongst the Melanesians of New Guinea, and declared .that in some cases the missionary policy to abolish tins custom would result not. only in the virtual disappearance of chieftainship, but also of all tribal and communal enterprise and the dislocation of all the personal and functional relationships that, bound their societies together. Coming to tho question of primitive magic and sorcery, ho said we were here dealing with one of tho least, understood factors in native life, and were apt to depreciate it and arbitrarily suppress it ip the laws we gave to the native peoples, but a careful scrutiny of tho forking of tho native social organisations and the history of the native institutions would reveal the intimacy between the institution of chieftainship and sorcery and show that the power of former residents in a great measure in later primitive economics was described as a subject of first ethnographical importance. Tho motive behind the primitive communism was one of the questions calling for immediate study, ns ignorance of this problem on the part of colonial administrators was one of the means by winch they struck at the very roots of tribal life and cohesion and so created native discontent. Dr Sutton, in an address on ‘'Child Hygiene,” said that health control of childhood was now rapidly assuming a position second to none in the whole range of public health. ■ New Zealand , undoubtedly led tho world in infant care and management. Dealing with malnutrition, he em-

phasised the importance of diet and giving children fresh milk, fresh fruit, and fresh vegetables, which ho described as ‘‘our sheet anchors.” He dealt at length with epidemics amongst children, and indicated the measures being taken by tho health authorities to deal with Ahern. Mr Koitch Ward (Government Geologist in South Australia) delivered his presidential address to tho geology and mineralogy section, taking ns his subject the necessity for an organised investigation of the physical basis of primary production as a means for meeting the need for increasing tho productive occupations of such sparsely populated countries as Australia and New Zealand. In an address before the. Education, section Mr J. A. Johnson (president of the Education section) said the idea was now being pressed home that the best results in education flowed from individual freedom along the path of self-realisation. Training for good citizenship implied an early asao-

ciation with activities likely to bo similar to those in adult relations, and the schools, ns at present cprporated, seemed to offer few opportunities. The centre of interest in education had moved from the individual to the community, and a demand was made for social service rather than for individual advancement. The aim was r to lay the foundation of intelligent citizenship, tending to a better social order. .Mr H. D. Skinner, of the Otago University. read a paper before the Ethnological section this afternoon on ‘’The 'Moa Hunters of Canterbury, '.and. Otajjo.”' The earliest elaborated theory on this subject, was, he said, that of Von Haast, who held that the moa hunters , were of the paleolithic period, but from all the evidence that ho had been able to gather from the deposits at Monk’s Cave (Sumner), the Shag River, and the mouth of Hamilton's

Swamp, he came to the definite conclusion that the moa hunters were-of Polynesian origin. Amongst other papers read were “Human Capital,’’ by Charles H. Wickcns (commonwealth Statistician and president of the Statistical section), which dealt wholly with the population problems of commonwealth; “The Hut and Flea. Problem in Prevention of Plagues,’’ by Dr Purdy.

of Sydney, who described the precautions taken in Sydney to prevent the spread of plague germs; and “A Carboniferous Volcanic Activity in Southern Queensland,” by Professor ll.'. C. Richards, of the Queensland University.

Before the Biological section. Professor Chilton discussed and demonstrated tho latest methods of preserving minute Crustacea. Before the same section. Professor R. R, D. Milligan read a paper which embodied experiments to determine the blood temperature .of the tnatnru lizard, tho result of which showed that fnntara was very “cold blood ’’ when compared with the common frog. A live tuatara was used to illustrate the points in the discourse. The Government Astronomer, Dr C. K. Adams, outlined to the Astronomical section work accomplished during the observation at IVatlal in connection, with (he recent

solar expedition. He did not comment on (he results of the observations, remarking that they would bo assimilated later. Ho commented very favourably on the preparations made by the Lick Observatory, and remarked that it would be interesting to learn with what success deflections had been avoided in photographing the result. Two papers by Professor A. D. Ross were read on “ Shadow Bands and Photographic Measurement of tho Brightness of the Total Eclipse.”

Lecturing on the factors influencing the water requirements of ■ farm crops’ under Australian conditions, Mr A.'TJ. V. Richardson (Director of the School of Agriculture) said the results of experiments hail led him to lecture. The rainfall of the wheat, holt of Australia was sufficient to produce an average yield at least double that previously obtained.

The position of birds in the scale of evolution was the 'subject, of a paver read by Professor Bciiham. In the course of his remarks Professor Bonham said: “Birds are usually regarded as lower in the evolutionary scale than mammals, probably because man is traditionally regarded as the lord of creation and placed at the head of the animal kingdom : as nia.n is a mammal, birds would naturally be lower (ban they. But structurally man is in 'matif- respects, apart, from his huge brain, a member of a rather primitive group of mammals. Both birds and mammals are descended from extinct, reptiles which lived in Peruvian or Triassio times. , Birds arc reptiles which have become terrestrially active on (heir hind limbs; mammals are reptiles which have developed activity in all four limbs. A detailed comparison of the skeleton of mammals and reptiles on the one hand, and birds and reptiles on the other, demonstrates that, whereas the mammals have contrived the habit, of general structure of primithe reptiles, the birds have departed much more considerably from them than-have the mammals. And as the degree of departure for an ancestral type is a measure of the stage of evolution, then birth-, must be regarded as at. a higher stage than mammals. The physical and mental activities of birds, their various instincts, such as shown in migration, nest, building, care of the nestlings, etc.: their eyesight, their powers of producing music, and so on, are equal to and in most respects in advance of anything found amongst mammals. The domestic fowl is on these groundsninre.highly evolved than man: hut man. owing to his brain and consequent mental powers, has become the controller of all Nature, and in this rospeeb

higher than the fowl and all other creatures, but not structurally. The beauty of tho bird, its astonishing adjustment, of all its parts, the elegance of its flight, have so surprised mankind that tho artist wishing to portray the'super-man, or angel, has introduced tho bird-wing into the human form.