A SCIENTIFIC VISITOR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21996, 4 July 1933, Page 4

A SCIENTIFIC VISITOR

DR HAROLD T. STEARNS INTERVIEWED COMMENTS ON ROTORUA AND MAORIS. A Dr Harold T. Stearns, an American geologist, who for the past nine yeais has been engaged on the mapping and charting of the volcanic islands of the Hawaiian group on behalf of the United States Geological Survey, is at present on a visit to Dunedin at the invitation of the Otago Institute, to which body he will deliver a series of lectures dealing with Hawaiian volcanoes, and the Yellowstone National Park in the United reporter at Jackson’s Hotel yesterday, Dr Stearns said he had come to New Zealand mainly for the purpose of studying the thermal regions of Rotorua. It was his first visit, and he was greatly interested in' the type of volcanic activity displayed there. He had taken two motion pictures of the district, and hag b.een very fortunate in the conditions prevailing during his visit, so that he was able to do the regions justice. He remarked that the most natural comparison for an American to make . on visiting Rotorua was to cast his mind back to 3000 square miles expanse of the Yellowstone National Park. They were entirely different fields in both character and action, Yellowstone was thousands, probably millions of years old, while Rotorua was comparatively young. Rotorua, he understood, was subject to earthquakes, and the disturbances thus caused had. a great deal to do with the thermal activity. There were no earthquakes in the Yellowstone area, but the geysers were much larger and far more frequent in their action. During his visit to Rotorua he did not see a large geyser playing, while on the other hand the tourist in Yellowstone National Park seldom had to wait for an hour. Rotorua, being a younger field and subject to entirely different conditions from those in Yellowstone Park, would go on breaking out in a fresh place indefinitely, but there was something more fixed and established about the ways and pranks of Yellowstone geysers and blow-holes. They had been there for years, and would remain there for years, more or less constant in their play, although fresh outbreaks were still frequent. Some of the biggest of these geysers, he suggested, had probably been playing for 25,000 years. Dr Stearns regards Rotorua as a highlyinteresting geological study and is delighted at having had the opportunity of securing two good motion picture reels, which will furnish significant and unmistakable comparisons when they are exhibited in conjunction with the films he has of Yellowstone National Park. Speaking of the Maori race. Dr Stearns said he had been greatly impressed by the high moral and cultural standard they displayed. They were entirely different from the negro race, which seemed to suffer from au inferiority complex

which did it far more harm than any superiority complex the white races entertain with regard to it. During faia visit to the North Island he had stayed for some days in a Maori home, and had spent a lot of time “swapping'words with his host. The similarity of meaning and form in Maori and Havanan words had been astonishing. The. Maoris, at Ruatahuna had exhibited signs ot genuine excitement when they learned that he and his wife, who is travelling |With him, came from Maui, the legendary home in the north to which the traditional god returned after he saw his people settled in New Zealand, and great disappointment was expressed at the inability of the visitors to remain; m the district for a few days for the occasion of a great gathering to be held m what is the largest Maori meeting house in the Dominion. The Maori said Dr Stearns, appeared to him To be like the Hawaiian, possessed of plenty of confidence in himself and his race and convinced of his equality with the white Stearns remarked that New Zealand was one of the most interesting countries in the world geologically, and there was no end to the studies which be pursued here. He bad been shown a great deal that interested him in and around Dunedin by Dr Benson, of whose work he spoke in terms of the .highest praise. He said he had been privileged to gee some of the results of oyer 15 vears’ careful study and investigation .by Dr Benson with regard to the geology of Otago. It represented a tenacity ot purpose and a patience which he himself did not possess and which, he suggested, was not common to most men.