ANTARCTIC RESEARCH

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18265, 7 December 1933, Page 9

ANTARCTIC RESEARCH

BYRD OUTLINES PLANS EXTENSIVE PROGRAM M L NEW ZEALAND PRAISED (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON. last night. ‘‘l cannot express how very glad 1 am to In* once more in New Zealand,” said Admiral Richard Byrd in an interview. ‘‘l shall never forget Iho unbounded hospitality shown u* when I Inst visited the Dominion mid the debt ! owe for I lie assistance rendered to us then can never lip repaid. In 1825 29. I learned that the nearness of New Zealand to the Antarctic was "id the only thing that recommended il t;- explorers. M-inlmrs of that expedition, .-a. oi ie of whom have ret tinted with ini', i-e'Tied away memories of on stinted kindness, 'friendliness .and ro operation. ’ ’ Admiral Byrd, who does not look a year older than when lie was last hero, expressed groat appreciation of the ntany privileges and great assistance already extruded the expedition by the New Zealand Government and the Wellington and Otago Harbor Boards, and also of the friendly offers of help from private individuals. It was really like coming back to old triends. M ('( II WORK TO DO Questioned as to the plans of the expedition, Admiral Byrd said that it "'its very completely manned mid equipped, mid lie hoped that much work of geographical and scientific value would be accomplished. Many new things had been discovered by tin* last expedition which had, perforce, left many gups which it was hoped would be filled in this trip.

Plans hud been Laid for further exploration of regions to (lie eastward and south-east of the expedition’s base nr Little America. Parties of geologists. physicists and other scientists would go out to investigate problems in the new land discovered to the eastward mid also in the Queen Maude mountain ranges and on the polar plateau itself. Efforts would be made to ascertain by geophysical methods the depth of (he great ice cap covering the Antarctic conliuenl. The meteorological programme of the expedition planned to carry out extensive observations over a wide area, which, it was hoped, would lie of the greatest value in determining the iatluenee of Antarctic conditions on the weather in the Southern Hemisphere. Zoological and biological investigations would iislo lie extensively carried out, and it was planned a 1 so to make oremiographiral surveys in Ross Sea.