SCIENCE CONGRESS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18762, 16 January 1923, Page 7

SCIENCE CONGRESS

INTERESTING PAPERS. NATIVE ECONOMIC REVOLUTIONS DR SCHOLEFIELD’S VIEWS (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, January 15. Before the Science Congress this morning. Dr Scholofiekl road a paper dealing with the “Economic Revolution in Polynesia.” Ho pictured in vivid terms rhe pre-European condition of the South Sea Islanders, with their many divisions, their primitive industries, and their warlike enterprises. Those conditions continued with little variation until one day in the eighteenth century, when the first explorer’s shin touched at one of the island groups. Then commenced an economic revolution, which taught them the idea of trade, the use of iron, etc. Instantly native economy began to undergo a change. Before the next ship arrived a stock of sheep, cattle, pigs, and fowls, bred from those loft by the early Spaniards, by Cook, and Vancouver, furnished the wherewithal for regular barter. Runaway whites taught the natives how to produce for this new market, and from the chiefs the power to trade began to centre in individuals of lower caste, introducing incidentally the use of monejp The presence of missionaries did much to check the ravages arising from the use of firearms, which, on that account, did much less damage than in Melanesia. By the opening of the nineteenth century native economy had undergone an enormous change, and already population was on the decrease.

Tho onuses of this depopulation, both direct and indirect, were summarised, and the influence of natives shipping away as seamen, harpooners, interpreters, and plantation labourers was traced. The lecturer proceeded then to deal with the revolution in New Zealand, where ft functioned somewhat differently. Here, tho climate being temperate, white settlers were able to work beside the Natives, and their steady increase had absorbed the lands of dhe Natives, who now possess the fee simple ; of lands amounting to 90 acres per head, whereas tho whites possess an average of only 50 acres per head. Up to 1896 tho Native population was falling in numbers, hut since then it has been rising, duo to three main causes: —(1) Tho gradual pauperisation compelling Natives to work; (2) the example of white men in thou - midst, showing them how_ to work; (3) improved hygiene and medical services. While the Natives could live in idleness, living on rents and moneys received from Europeans, they were dying off. Now, owing to the decay of the tribal system, all this was changed. They were being pushed into the competitive life, and hard work, of which they were so capable, hod saved many of their lives. The ideal solution was that tried on the East Coast by the Hon. A.' T. Ngata, where Natives had banded together in n co-operative scheme for managing and working their own lands, thus combining the competitive svstom of the pakeha with the communism of tho Maori. AN ANIMATED DISCUSSION.

At the close of Dr Scholefield’s paper an animated discussion took place. The president, Captain Pitt Rivers,_ said that the paper was one of the most interesting that liad been read, and it prompted a vast field of comment. He took it that Dr Scholefield suggested as a remedy for the decay of the Polynesian races what really amounted to commercialising them —making them part of the modern economic organisation. Personally, he differed emphatically from that point of viow r . If ino economic forces had produced amongst the civilised nations what had occurred in Russia and elsewhere, could we suggest they would be any more successful if applied to the Polynesians. As an anthropologist he thought they would not consider the wisdom or otherwise of capitalism as a means of preserving the_ race. The trader always suggested creating a desire for things which he ulono could sell. Another speaker laid stress on the tact that the Maoris were quite equal to Europeans in certain fields of thought—in psychology, in mathematics, and so on. Their salvation was to be found in deyelppmp them along those lines. When they entered the realm of commerce they were helpless, consequently it was useless to look for their salvation in the economic sphere Mr Wickens, President of the Social Science Section, gave particulars of the disappearance of the blacks, and agreed with the wisdom of disussing, these

questions of administration in the interests of the remaining races of the Pacific. Dr P. H. Buck, in proposing a vote of thanks, agreed with the lecturer that conditions in New Zealand were quite different from those in the islands. The Now Zealand Health Department had gone on the right lines in appointing chiefs as sanitary inspectors, thus preserving the value of the chief system and it by the strength of the Government. having was out of the question with the Maori. They had never done ii. Their food stores were only for a single season. As regards tho supposed increase of the Maori race, he said that teachers of native schools had filled iu forms for him which showed that just over 50 per cent, of fhc children had white blood in them. He did not agree that the Maori was going to disappear with tho kiwi and tho weka. . They would become more and more diluted with white blood, and would bo eventually absorbed, Dr Sobol efi old, in reply, said it was a thousand pities we bad not previously known as much of the native races as wo did ro day. as we might then have left their civilisation alone. The race material pi Polynesia to-day was not the unspoiled native race that Captain Pitt Rivers had worked among, but tho races whose social organisation wc- lijkl destroyed, and who had almost disappeared. Wo could not leave them to die out, and wo could not restore cheir bid system. •He believed the only way to preserve them was by teaching them to take their part in the competitive life of the modern economic system.

RURAL CREDIT IN NEW ZEALAND. Brief Survey of the Rural Credit in Now Zealand” was the subject of a. paper prepared for the social and statistical section by Professor J. B. Condliffe and Mr H. Belshaw, M.A., both of Canterbury College The conclusion arrived at was that rural industries are suffering not so much from a shortage of credit at this moment ns from unsound finance, resulting from 100 much credit in the immediate past; and that no economist can view with equanimity schemes which offer even l the danger of a -further inflation of credit. The solution of the dominion’s economic difficulties will not be found in a further era of a cheap credit, based either on borrowing or internal inflation. Ihe rural credit associations scheme is admirable within limits, but can do little or nothing to assist present difficulties; and much tho same may he said of a. Stale hank. If such schemes "were used to provide more liberal credit facilities in an endeavour to evade recognition of tho plain facts of the present situation, the result would be disastrous. ft must lie remembered that the longest and most severe financial depression experienced by the dominion was the period of falling prices of 1873 and 1895, the difficulty of which was very largely one of unwise borrowing and the conferment land boom in the early seventies, resulting in over-capitalisation, which finally recoiled upon tho banks. MENTAL ACTIVITY.

“That the Surviving Influence of Ancient Hibernating and the Subsequent Mating Periods of One Year on Modern Life is Inimical to the Energies and to Mental Activity” was the subject of a paper read by Mr A. B. Fid, M.A. Tests of 355 pupils of the Melbourne School showed that the height and weight increased most rapidly in the first half of the year, from February to July. There was a break or crisis in the physical development in July and August, height increase becoming dominant. The mental'functions of memory and attention were high in the first part of the year, falling suddenly at the July or August crisis, and, although they rose again the second half of the year, the average was below those of the first half. The speed and accuracy tests showed evidence of mental instability at the .Inly and August crisis. The address then dealt with suicide, conception of death, and disease. The statistics were all affected by the old hibernating and reproduction period. RACIAL DIVERSITY OF POLYNESIAN PEOPLES.

-The Racial Diversity of Polynesian Peoples” was dealt _ with in a paper forwarued by Mr Lewis H. Sullivan, PL.D., assistant curator of physical anthropology, American Museum of Natural History. It, was generally hold, ho said, that the Polynesians were a. mixed people. The majority of students felt that mixture, took place before migration into Polynesia. Professor Dixon, of Harvard University, from detailed study of the available data on Polynesia, had proposed four types which were tentatively identified as Negrito, Melanesian, Caucasian, and Malay, As a result of further investigations two types had been

isolated, ivhich were tentatively called Polynesian and Indonesian. The characteristics of these two types were described. Polynesian was strikingly Caucasian in appearance. At present it was impossible to determine their exact place in the human family. The available data seemed to indicate that Polynesian was intermediate between the Caucasians and the Mongols. The two types entered the Pacino at different times, and possibly by different routes. There was a Melanesian element, in certain parts of Polynesia as in Tonga, New Zealand, and. Ihe Easter Island. The influence of the Polynesians on Melanesia, had been greater than that of the Melanesians on Polynesia, There was a short-headed t.ype in Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, Hawaii, and the Marquesas,, which was not Indonesian. The writer considered them as a Polynesian type with an artificially flattened occiput. There hud been recognised four types called Indonesian, Melanesian, Polynesian, and Polynesians with deformed heads. However, much work had still to bo done.

INSECT FAUNAS OF AUSTRALASIA. The origin and composition of the insect faunas of Australia and New Zealand were dealt with by Dr F. J. Tillyard. Addressing tho biologjr section, he said that this was the first ime an attempt had been made to extract general conclusions on the subject. The fossil.evidence, he said, was confined to Australia, not a single fossil insect having been discovered in JMew Zealand. There appeared to have been at least three streams of immigration from the north and three from the south. Ten elements were recognised to form the two faunas. Of these nine formed the complex Australian insect fauna, while only five could be recognised as contributing to New Zealand fauna. SHEEP MAGGOT FLT. The sheep maggot fly in New Zealand was not as serious a problem as in Australia, but it was being tackled, said Mr David Millar, Government Entomologist, in his address before the congress. Four native, four Australian, and seven European species existed hero, of which the European blue. Australian green, and one golden-haired were responsible for blowing sheep. Soiled woolled and greasy adult sheep and lambs at marking and weaning time were the most susceptible. Efficient cHitching and dipping constituted a remedy. Parasites had been introduced to combat the pest. LOST ART OF WEAVING. The art of weaving and its development by the Maoris was the subject of a lecture by Dr Buck. Other Polynesian races, he said, had forsaken weaving in favour of bark

cloth, a supply of which the Maoris had brought to Now Zealand, but they found that it was unsuitable for the climate. The Maoris had therefore revived the lost art of weaving, for which flax in abundant quantities was available. From basket designs eel traps were evolved—simple plaited designs. Finally they inserted cloth from plain twined weaving with a two-ply weft. The Maoris’ inventive progress to a four-ply weft, with which the better class of garments was made, closed -with twine weaving, as in the famous dogskin cloaks. A further development, rapped twined weaving in the beautiful, geometrical, coloured designs of Taniko borders marked the highest advance of all. The two-pointed sticks upon which the Maori weaving was set up was not a degenerate representative of the forgotten loom, but was an independent creation invented during their occupation of New Zealand. RAILWAY TRANSITION CURVES. Professor D. M., Y. Sommnrville offered in a paper on “Railway Transition Curves,” which was read before the engineering section, pome suggestions as to how greater smoothness of running and increased comfort to passengers may be ensured in the. passage of a railway train over a bend or curve in a line. Ho pointed out that in an ordinary transition curve the lino was banked up on one side, and the passengers experienced a certain amount of discomfort as the litoral acceleration was changing, beginning and ending suddenly at the ends of. the transition curve. By means of a more gradual form of transition curve which was explained in detail in the paper this discontinuity was removed. The adoption of the curve he had outlined, the lecturer stated, should lead to still greater smoothness and greater comfort to passengers. RECENT EARTHQUAKES. In the course of a short address on ''Re-

cent Earthquakes” in 'New Zealand, Dr C. E. Adams, Government Astronomer, stated that records of the earthquakes were obtained from about 80 postmasters and others from stations distributed throughout the dominion. The most severe earthquake m 1981 was that of June 29, which had an intensity of eight in the. Rossi Forel scale. The centre was near Gisborne. The Taupo earthquakes beginning in June hod not yet. ho said, entirely subsided. The earthquake of December 25 had its centre in the Cheviot district, and had an intensity of nine as shown on the Rossi Forel scale. The highest intensity on this scale was 10. NEW ZEALAND-TONGA BELT ERUPTIONS. Dr J. A. Thomson, Director of the Dominion Museum, delivered an address on “Eruptions in the New Zealand-Tonga Voleanic Belt,” He said that the late Mr Percy Smith had given an excellent account of Tar awe ra, eruption, and that nearly all we knew of the volcanic eruptions in the Kormadco Islands hud been recorded by him. Ruapehu appeared to be an extinct volcano, but, the lake at its summit had been violently disturbed on. several occasions, and steam had been seen rising from it. No lava had been erupted from the actual crater of , Nguuruhoe. but Mr Bidwell had stated that on one occasion some lava flowed from a vent on its side. There had been many explosive eruptions, and flames might have accompanied tome of these. There had, said the lecturer, been several eruptions of vents on Tongariro, Teniaire, and the Red C rater. Mr Ericdlonder had described one of these, whieli was accompanied by flames of different colours. The eruption, of Tarawera on June 10. 1886, took everyone by surprise, but in the light of present knowledge there were a number of signs of the coming eruption. The geysers and hot springs of the district were’ more active than usual. Small masses of lava seemed to have welled up in some of the lesser craters along the Tnrawera rift. In 1900 the Waimangii geyser began to play from one of the small craters along the Tarawera rift. In 1917 Frying Pan Flat blow out and destroyed the Waimang'i vent. It seemed to have been a true eruption. At While Island in September. 1914, a tragedy occurred, all the sulphur workers on the island losing their jives, only a cat being saved. Eruptions on Sunday Island, in the Kermadeo group, occurred in 1814, 1872, 1886, and in 1902. The speaker said that there were 10 volcanic vents in the Tonga Islands. There were only three actual volcanoes on the land—the others were submarine. Many eruptions had been recorded. This volcanic belt from New Zealand to Tonga was evidently a very active one, and systematic records and observations were highly desirable. The lecturer emphasised the need for a volcano observatory, and mentioned that eruptions could be predicted, as bad been done by Dr 'l'. A. Jaggar in Hawaii. He also mentioned that in Japan a serious eruption was predicted a fortnight before it occurred. Tho neighbouring population was removed anti no lives were lost. With our present knowledge. Dr Thomson said that he firmly believed that the Tnrawera eruption—it? time and place, could have been predicted, and thus lives which had been lost could, have been saved. TAUPO EARTHQUAKES OF 1922.

In the course of a brief address on “The Taupo Earthquakes of 1922.” Professor E. Marsden, ]>.Sc., remarked that these earthquakes, which began in June, 1922, wore still continuing hut were now very slight. The quakes hud been felt as far west as Taumarunui. A large block of land on llio north shore of the lake had dropped nine feet. The fall diminished in the north and petered our, eight or nine miles in that direction. The fail had taken place over a, period of several months. II was not known, he added, how far the. fallen block extended under Lake Taupo. No evidence of it. was scon. Home-made seismographs wore installed at Wairakei and Tauno. The actual records were disappointing, hut very informative ns to what should be done in the future. The cause of the earthquakes was undoubtedly dependent on the movements of the earth's crust and not volcanic nr due to subterranean explosions of any kind. The tremors were very frequent during the early part of the period over which (he observations were made - up to 20 or 50 in an hour. Their intensity was 9. The Rosie Forel scale was from 1 to 6, 1 being a tremor imperceptible to the senses, and 6 a somewhat violent shake. No great, material damage was done. Many of the tremors wore accompanied by a rumbling and curious noise. In a subsequent discussion on the advisability of establishing a volcnnological and seismological observatory, Professor Marsden advocated the placing of portable scismological instruments at Rotorua, aaid taking them, if required, lo any district where an earthquake had occurred. The after shocks would thus Ho recorded at, iho volcanological observatory. Professor L. A. Cotton said that Wellington was not likely to be free for all time from earthquake shocks, and he therefore urged the fuller equipment of the Wellington Observatory. The meeting passed a resolution recommending the establishment of a volcanological observatory, and additions to the instruments at Wellington.