SCIENCE CONGRESS

Otago Witness, Issue 3593, 23 January 1923, Page 7

SCIENCE CONGRESS

INTERESTING PAPERS. WELLINGTON, January 15. Before the Science Congress this morning, Dr Scholefield read a paper dealing with the “Economic Revolution in Polynesia.” He pictured in vivid terms the pre-European condition of the South Sea Islanders, with their many divisions, their primitive industries, and their warlike enterprises. These conditions continued with little variation until one day in the eighteenth century, when the first explorer’s ship 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 left 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 money. 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. The causes 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 it functioned somewhat differently. Here, the climate being temperate, white settlers were able to work beside the Natives, and their stoady increase had absorbed the lands of the Natives, who now possess the fee simple of lands amounting to 90 acres per head, whereas the whites pos=ess an average of only 50 acres per head. Tip to 1896 the Native population was falling in numbers, but since then it has been rising due to three main causes:—(l) The gradual pauperisation compelling Natives to work; (2) the example of white men in their 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, had 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 a co-operative scheme for managing and working their own lands, thus combining the competitive system of the pakeha with the communism of the Maori. AN ANIMATED DISCUSSION. At the close of Dr Sehoiefield’s paper an animated discussion took place. The president. Captain Pitt, Rivers, said that the paper was one of the most interesting that had 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 view. If the economic forces had produced amongst the civilised nations what had occurred in Russia and elsewhere, could we suggest they would be any moro 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 alone could sell. Another speaker laid stress on the fact that the Maoris were quite equal to Europeans in certain fields of thought—m psychology, in mathematics, and so on. Their salvation was to he found in developing 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 Wiokens, President of the Social Science Section, gave particulars of the disappearance of the Australian 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. Trie 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 reinforcing it by the strength of the Government. Saving was out of the question with the Maori. They had never <aone it. Their food stores were only for a single season. As regards the

supposed increase of the Maori race, he said that teachers of native schools had filled in forms for him which showed that just over 50 per cent, of the children had white blood in them. He did not agTee that the Maori was going to disappear with the kiwi and the welca. They would be come more and more diluted with white blood, and would be eventually absorbed. Dr Scholefield, in reply, said it was a thousand pities we had not previously known as much of the native races as we did to day, as we might then have left their civilisation alone. The race material m Polynesia to-day was not the unspoiled native race that Captain Pitt Rivers had worked among, but the races whose social organisation we had destroyed, and who had almost disappeared. We could not leave them to die out, and we could not restore cheir old 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. “A Brief Survey of the Rural Credit in New 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 as from unsound finance, resulting from too much credit in the immediate past; and that no economist can view with equanimity schemes which offer even 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. The rural credit associations scheme is admirable within limits, but can do little or nothing to assist present difficulties; and much the same may be said of a State bank. If such schemes were used to provide more liberal credit facilities in an endeavour to evade recognition, of the plain facts of the present situation, the result would be disastrous. It must be 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 j one of unwise borrowing and the consequent land boom in the early seventies, resulting in over-capitalisation, which finally recoiled upon the 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. Fitt, 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 July 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 forwarded by Mr Lewis R. Sullivan, PL.D., assistant curator of physical anthropology. American Museum of Natural History. It was generally held, he 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, which were tentatively called Polynesian and Indonesian. The characteristics of these two types were described. Polynesian was strikingly Caucasian in appearance. At present it was impassible 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 Pacific at different times, and possibly by different routes. There was a Melanesian element in certain parts of Polynesia as in Tonga, New Zealand, and the Easter Island. The influence of the Polynesians on Melanesia had been greater than that of the Melanesians on Polynesia. There was a short-headed type 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 had been recognised four types called Indonesian, Melanesian, Polynesian, and Polynesians

with deformed heads. However, much work had still to be 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 the biology section, he said that this was the first time 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 New 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 FLY. The sheep maggot fly in New Zealand was not as serious a problem as in A us tralia, 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 here, 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 erutching 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 New 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 tivined 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, rappect 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. Summerville offered in a paper on “Railway Transition Curves,” which was read before the engineering section, some 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. He pointed out that in an ordinary transition curve the line was banked up on one side, and the passengers experienced a certain amount of discomfort as the literal 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 “Recent Earthquakes” in New Zealand, Dr O. 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 in 1921 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 had 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 ZE A LAND -TON G A BELT ERUPTIONS. Dr J. A. Thomson, Director of the Dominion Museum, delivered an address on “Eruptions in the New Zealand-Tonga Volcanic Belt.” He said that the late Mr Percy Smith had given an excellent account of the Tarawera eruption, and that nearly all we knew of the volcanic eruptions in the Ivermadec Islands had 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 Ngauruhoe, 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, Temaire, and the Red

Crater. Mr Friecllander had described one of these, which was accompanied by flames of different colours. The eruption of Tarawera on June 10, 1886, took everyone bysurprise, 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 Tarawera rift. In 1900 the Waimangu geyser began to play from one of the small craters along the Tarawera rift. In 1917 Frying Pan Flat blew out and destroyed the Waimangu vent. It seemed to have been a true eruption. At White Island in September, 1914, a tragedy occurred, all the sulphur workers on the island losing their lives, only- a cat being saved. Eruptions on Sunday Island, in the Kermadee group, occurred in 1814, 1j?72, 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 had been done by Dr T. A. Jaggar in Hawaii. He also mentioned that in Japan a serious eruption was predicted a fortnight before it occurred. The neighbouring population was removed and no lives were lost. With our present knowledge, Dr Thomson said that he firmly believed that the Tarawera eruption—its 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, D.Sc., remarked that thfese earthquakes, which began in June, 1922, were still continuing hut were now very slight. The quakes had been felt as far west as Taumarunui. A large block of land on the north shore of the lake had dropped nine feet. The fall diminished in thenorth and petered ouc eight or nine miles in that direction. The fall had taken place over a period of several months. It. was not known, he added, how far the fallen block extended under Lake Taupo. No evidence of it was seen. Home-made seismographs were installed at Wairakei and Taupo. The actual records were disappointing, but very informative as 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 or due to subterranean explosions of any kind. The tremors were very frequent during the early part of the period over which the observations were made—up to 20 or 30 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 were accompanied by a rumbling and curious noise. In a subsequent discussion on the advisability of establishing a volcanological and seismologica.l observatory, Professor Marsden advocated the placing of portable seismological instruments at Rotorua, and taking them, if required, to any district where an earthquake had occurred. The after shocks -would thus be recorded at the 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.