A SCIENTIST'S WORK

Otago Witness, Issue 3234, 8 March 1916, Page 3

A SCIENTIST'S WORK

VISIT OF CARNEGIE INSTITUTION 01-FICER.

MAGNETIC SURVEY OF AUSTRALIA.

The Carnegio Institution of Washington is continuing its work in connection with terrestrial magnetism in New Zealand. The magnetio observatory in the Christchurch Public Gardens makes that city a place of unusual importance to the officers of the institution, which has sent a member of the staff, Mr W. Parkinson, to spend a few weeks there, completing data which will be forwarded to Wellington, and will bo used in general work of a magnetic survey of the globe. Mr Parkinson arrived in Christchurch on Wednesday (says the Lyttelton Times). He is busy at the observatory now, but later he intends to visit several magnetio stations established by New Zealand in other parts of tho dominion. Included in the list of these places are the district near Wellington, near Cook Strait, and Rotorua. Ho may also establish several new magnetic stations, including some in tho Southern Lakes district and one on the Great Barrier Island. THE CARNEGIE. Mr Parkinson expects to complete his work by tho first week in April, when tho institution's magnetic survey vessel Carnegie, which left Lyttelton at tho end of last year, will return to the port. Tho vessel set out to make a voyage round the globe, as close as possible to the Antarctic Continent. It was intended that sho should not touch at any land during this voyage, but a message has been received from Washington, and Mr Parkinson concludes that sho has passed South America, and is on her way back to New Zealand.

THROUGH WESTERN AUSTRALIA. The institution has had observations made in Australia and in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, and all this part of tho world has been covered. Mr Parkinson has been engaged in this work for some time. Part of it was in Western Australia, where ho had a strenous time, travelling unfrequented roads, often in the company of tho natives. Ho went round the southern coast of Western Australia as far as tho boundary with South Australia, and travelled inland by way of Kalgoorlie, and then trekked north to the northern coast. He went many miles in a motor car, following the cattle tracks, but when the car could go no further ho sent it back, and continued his journey along the coast by steamer and sailing boat. The north-western district ho describes as a great desert, mostly of spinifex and sand, and an utterly impossible placo form the agriculturist's point of view. AMONG THE NATIVES.

The natives in the district are quito uncivilised and uncultured. They cling to their old ideas and customs. Mr Parkinson's party had no trouble with them, and in the journeys did not trust them, and did not allow any to walk behind in case of treachery. Although the natives met with might be friendly, there are tribal jealousies, and the friend "of ono tribe might be tho enemy of another tribe. There are missionaries amongst them, and these devoted men seemed to have gained their confidence and aro treated with respect and consideration. On the whole, the natives of the north-west, Mr Parkinson says, do not live up to a high standard. They are not on the same plane as the Polynesian peoples of many of tho Pacific islands, and he thinks that they will gradually die out before the advunoo of civilisation.