ADVANCE IN SCIENCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23706, 13 January 1939, Page 11

ADVANCE IN SCIENCE

NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA CANBERRA JUBILEE MEETING The following summaries of the presidential address by Professor Scott on “The History of Australian Science,” and a paper by Professor Speight on “ Some Aspects of Glaciation in New Zealand,” are furnished by the United Press Association. The addresses were delivered at the jubilee meeting in Canberra of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science, which opened yesterday:— The need for strongly recommending to the Federal Government the resumption of publication of Australian historical records until, at any rate, they had reached the date of establishment of responsible government in Australia, was urged upon delegates to the meeting by Professor Scott in his presidential address. Professor Scott urged that a resolution in these terms be included in the motions carried by the congress at the termination of the meetings. Publication of collections of documents of prime importance for the study of Australian history was commenced by the Federal Government before the Great War, said Professor Scott. Four series, comprising in all 38 volumes, appeared, the last of these being published in 1925. The Government then stopped work upon the editing and printing, and no further volumes had been issued. The decade following 1848, at which the last volume ended, was Crowded with events of the utmost importance and interest—the commencement of the total discontinuance of the penal system, the separation of Victoria from New South Wales, the great gold discoveries, and the beginning of responsible government —and they should follow the example of all civilised countries by making- accessible historical material. It was desired also that Australian history should be studied in other countries. In Australia, and also in New Zealand, science had a vast field for original research. The process of development revealed unexplored opportunities. “ The future of Australia is bound up with the progress of science to a greater degree than with any other of the instrumentalities of civilisation at work with--in our borders,” he said. “Australia is a land of almost immeasurable antiquity. The Australia that we know was born into the scientific age.” The field of science lay in every branch of human activity where the work of the practical man could be assisted by skilfully-directed experiment and by drawing upon the resources of world-wide knowledge. This country, added Professor Scott, so far from being a leader in the utilisation of scientific training, was in fact backward in that regard, and suffered much from the untutored and often wilfully obtuse imperviousness of the “ practical man.” But a better tutored spirit had taken possession of our rulers in respect to availing themselves of the training of the expert. Professor Scott paid a tribute to the work of t_hr Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, which, he said, had, under the direction of Sir David Eivett, proved itself to be worth many times the value of its upkeep for the brilliant work it had done and was continually doing for Australia.

“ Mr William Hughes was the first Prime Minister who grasped the need for scientific research in solving our many problems of development, and he brought into existence the organisation which, reconstituted on its present lines, is now recognised by all people in this country who have any capacity for thought, as the indispensable auxiliary of industrial and agricultural development,” he continued. There was a time when hardly a single trained man of science was engaged in any industry upon the task of searching for solutions of its problems. To-day there were science schools of universities, whose best students were in demand to a greater extent than they could be supplied. In all departments of science there was now a keener desire to make use of the trained man of science to-day than there had been at any time during the period, now nearing half a century, since he had been arj observer of Australian affairs.

“ I agree that the process by which this change has taken place in Australia, in regard to the utilisation of science, is not peculiar to this country,” Professor Scott went on. “ T. H. Huxley once wrote that there was a time in Great Britain when Lyell and Murchison were not considered fit to lick the dust off the boots of a curate. For curate substitute Minister of State or departmental official or manufacturer, or farmer, and the characteristically Huxleyan fling would hit the mark in Australia for periods even later than those of Charles Lyell and Roderick Murchison. But a more enlightened spirit is abroad to-day. a more intelligent recognition of what Bergson defined as the essential object of science—to increase our influence over things. Professor Scott recalled the earliest research efforts made in Australia, which dated back to the Australian biological expeditions associated with the voyages of Captain Cook, and referred to the slowness with which scientific research developed in Australia ip the period before the founding of the universities. The first effort to organise science in Australia was made in December. 1821. in the early part of the governorship of Sir Thomas Brisbane. The Philosophical Society was founded in Sydney with Brisbane as a member. Brisbane spent £IOOO of his own money in equip-

ping an observatory at Parramatta, where he inaugurated the first star catalogue—comprising 7395 stars, from the first magnitude to the eighth—made in this country. There was no record of the Philosophical Society after 1823. The universities gave to the sciences a status and a leadership previously lacking, and in not a few instances brought into the foreground men of remarkable capacity for original research, inspiration, and leadership. A focusing point for the meeting of the men of science in Australia was brought about when Professor Archibald Liversidge projected the Australian Association of Science. The appropriate occasion was the centenary of the foundation of colonisation in Australia in 1888.

It was consoling to reflect, concluded Professor Scott, that when the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science celebrated its centenary 50 years hence the then president, who delivered an address on the “History of Australian Science,” would have a richer field to traverse.

RETREAT OF GLACIERS ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR SPEIGHT The retreat of glaciers within recent years appeared to be almost world-wide in its incidence. Professor R. Speight, of Christchurch, New Zealand, told delegates. Observations made up to the present indicated a general retreat of New Zealand glaciers within historical times, he added in his paper, “ Some Aspects of Glaciation in New Zealand.” Professor Speight expressed regret, however, that little accurate observation had been carried out in connection with New Zealand glaciers.

Qualifying his remarks concerning the world-wide retreat of glaciers, Professor Speight pointed out that of the 160 glaciers in the European Alps, of which there were reasonably complete records from 1911 to 1928, about 75 per cent, showed retreat, whereas for the period 1931 to 1935,-of 380 glaciers observed only 10 showed advance, and that only a few metres. There were isolated instances where advances occurred for a particular year, although for the four-year period they showed retreat. In the

case of Scandinavia, of 20 glaciers observed between 1912 and 1928, all showed retreat, and of 43 between 1931 and 1936 all showed retreat, although there appeared to be a period from 1931 to 1936 when advances occurred in some cases for several successive years; but there was a balance in favour of retreat for the whole period. During the period 1931-35 all the glaciers of Iceland, 27 in number, with one exception, showed retreat, and the advance of the exceptional glacier was only 56 metres as compared with a retreat of 250 in the case of some other glaciers. The glaciers of Greenland and Spitsbergen also showed retreat. A similar recession occurred also with glaciers of the Sierra Nevada and other high mountains of western United States, although there were a few slight advances. The Antarctic ice-sheet showed signs of recent retreat, although this could not be stated definitely to be analogous to the retreat recorded from other parts of the world during the past few years.

Professor Speight attributed the probable reason for the absence of indications of glaciation in New Zealand in late Palaeozoic times to the fact that the country did not then form part of an extensive land surface. In the South Island the present glaciers were restricted to the main range of the Southern Alps from the vicinity of Milford Sound, and the head of Lake Wakatipu to Arthur’s Pass, some 150 miles north-east, occurring in that section of the range with summits exceeding 7500 feet in height. In the North Island a glacier occupied the crater of Ruapehu. and small overflows therefrom mantled the upper slopes of the volcano. Parts of the country now no longer glacierised showed clear traces of the former presence of ice, added Professor Speight. In central and north-west Nelson, and specially along the flanks of the Spenser Mountains, at the head of the Wairau River, and in the high country further north, occurred moraines, parched, scoured, and scratched surfaces, and also in places on the valley floors, deposits of varied silt. Even the coastal range to the west showed signs of being retouched by ice.