THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7061, 13 January 1891, Page 4

THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.

SIR JAMES HECTOR INTERVIEWED.

[FROM OUR OWH COaEK3PONDBNT.]

WELLINGTON, Jan. 12,

Hearing that Sir James Hector was about to sail this afternoon for Christchurch, to attend the meeting ot the scientific folk whose doings are taking a large bhare of your columns, and about to take a very much larger share presently, I took it into my head that the genial President of the Assooiation would know rather more about that body and its work than anyone else. I therefore waited upon him and aßked him to give me a few words of conversation on yoerr behalf. He was surrounded by masses of papers ; visiting cards (just handed in) strewed the orderly dtlbris — the accumulation was eloquent as a deterrent. It said as plainly as possible, " Don't you see 1 am busy ?" The ponderous tomes on the shelves around joined with all the natural history specimens which swarm on every coign of vantage in that room where so much and such varied and such interesting, as well as important, work has been done. The only thing that encouraged me to proceed was the smiling countenance of the object of all these silent protests. Sir James received me with that unfailing cheerfulness which has made him so popular, and placed his time at my disposal for your benefit at once. " What did I want to know ?"

When I had replied to that question with the ghastly comprehensiveness which makes men flee from the face of the interviewer here, we fell into talk about the scientific body over which Sir James Hector presides and which is meeting on Thursday in your city. The Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, I learn, owed its origin some four or five years ago to Professor Liversedge, of Sydney, on his return from a visit to Europe. While away, the Professor's devotion to duty — he did some very valuable work — did not make him forget the interests of the Colonial world, of which he is one of the foremost scientific men. So impressed was he with the value of the opportunities given by the various Associations for the Advancement of Science by co-operation of scientific workers, that he made np his mind to establish a kindred Society on his return to Australia. Accordingly, on his return, he organised the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science. "It was really one of the first Associations in Australia/'.Sir James remarked, with a smile. Its first meeting was held in Sydney two yeara ago, under the Presidency of Mr Russell, the Government astronomer ; its second in Melbourne last year, under the veteran botanist, Baron Sir Ferdinand von Mueller, who is at the present moment in Caristchurch ; the third takes place in your city under Sir James Hector, as distinguished a man of science, let me add, as any (but this is not mentioned in the conversation between us) ; the fourth meeting will be at Hobart next year under some one who will be elected by the Christchurch meeting.

At this point we revert to the kindred Societies cf Great Britain and America, which had inspired Professor Li»er3edge with the idea of gaining the Australian Scientific Society's co-operation. The point to be illustrated was the usefulness of the societies. Fifty-seven years ago the British was founded ; three or four years later the American. The history of each is a history of successful achievement. " I have here," Sir Jame3 tells me, with a sparkle in his eye, " a lithograph of the original MS. roll of the British Association. The names are a guarantee of the good work of the founder and first President, Sir David Brewster. Honoured names among the rest are Herschell, Airey, Buckland, Phillips and Faraday." I ventured to ask about Darwin and Hooker, and am at once met with — "Too young, both, and unknown. Darwin was absent with the Beagle making those wonderful studies which became the foundation of his knowledge and success. Hooker ? As for him, he was at College. He had taken neither degree nor diploma; he had not gone away with Boss, or the Erebus and Terror on that strange, eventful voyage ; neither had he made his name with ' Flora No vie Zealandia.' His distinguished father, Sir William, was making the Kew Gardens the centre of the botanical and scientific world at the time. The object of the British Association, was, mi \S, the collection of men eminent in every scientific department to compare notes, to assist discoveries, to diffuse over the land the latest result 3 of scientific research, to stimulate research, to bring before the public every discovery of commercial value. The thirty - seven years of the British Association's history are full of the records of the splendid work of the above kind done in every one of the departments of science — mathematical, physical, chemical, biology, botany, physiology, anatomy, geography and ethnography, economic science and statistics, mechanical science, anthropology — all of which Bubjects are grouped and divided into sections of the Society, each with its special i President. Tho Association has had great success, and, inter alia, has proved the chief factor in the advancement of technological science. The American Association, founded on the same lines, has also had great success. Its President elect, by the way, Professor Goodale, of Harvard College, will be at the Christchurch meeting. In both countries the Societies are very popular and well supported. Their work, in fact, is widely known and thoroughly appreciated."

Did not Sir James think that there was even a greater field for suoh work before our Society than there had been before the older Societies P

Most decidedly. Prom the economic point of view the Australasian had this advantage, that the resources of the new world are still undeveloped, waiting, m fact, to reward scientific exploration and research, whereas most of the wealth of the old world had been tapped, and a great deal of it exhausted before the Association had come into being ; exhausted without the aid of science, which in many departments — such as geology — iB not much more than fifty years old, explained Sir James. Moreover, there is another great advantage on our side of the world in the new lights which scientific research in our hemisphere may tnrow upon old facts; more material reward for the worker, more scientific scope, more interest. These aie the advantages our Association enjoys in its new field of labour*

"We have done a good deal of work, however, in New Zealand," I said, and Sir James at once agreed and proceeded to enlarge on the subject, dividing it into two periods — the period of the unofficial travellers and explorers, and of those who, retained by the various Governmentsgeneral and provincial — did much to prepare the way for the colonist before he came, and to direct him after he had settled dovn to the work of subduing the wilderness. He talked of the days of Bidwill, who, first of all Europeans, ascended Tongariro; of Diffenbach, the German, who, when he had come to the end of, his dissertation, pronounced (moie than fifty years ago it was), in characteristic fashion, that nothing was left for anybody else to say about New Zealand in anything.

"He was supposed to have made the first ascent of Egmont ?"

"Oh ! Yes, he was. He got up to the snow line, and then he got down again. Then Hochstetter and Haast came on the scene and a hoet of others too numerous for me to mention here."

" These things will be spoken of no doubb at the meeting, Sir James ?"

" No doubt."

From that to other subjects was a simple transition, which we effected with ease, and naturally, but it came out that you have already published in your paper ■ a good deal about the list of subjects to be discussed. It struck me that it would scarcely be' fair to ask Sir James his-' opinion of the scope or merits of coming papers. I c#uld not resist mentioning the papers on the Antarctic expedition whjoh .had bees' introduced to the public by circular from the Antarctic Society. Sir James re-

minded me that this matter was one very fall of interest for New Zealand. In 1872 he, himself, had been invited to lecture on the subjecs to a public meeting at Wellington. A large crowd came to bear him, and Sir Jamea Ferguson was in the chair. He (Sir James Hector), lectured, and enthusiastic resolutions were passed. Since then the interest had died away altogether. The Antarctic Society had, however, put things in a somewhat new light, and the arrangements for the expedition appeared to be good and within easy financial reach. The mention of 4 Professor Nordenksjold, the leader of the proposed Antarctic expedition, naturally took us into Siberian waters, and they carried us at once to the project of Dr Nansen, who intends to reach the North Pole by way of the great Arctic current which drifts from the New Siberian Islands over the Pole, or close to it, to the open sea between Greenland and Spitzbergen. " I see," Sir James says, " that all he wants is a supply of suitable clothing and food. That conclusion he came to when covering Greenland the otker day." Sir James was quite sure about the food and clothing, but not so sure about the cunrent. The food and clothing problem Hre had solved for himself in his young days. " That was in Canada, doubtless, Sir James ?"

" Yes,it was in Canada," Sir James said; and he gave me many interesting details of his tnree years' exploration, lying on the snow in winter, and camped out under every sort of sky, exploring, shooting, fishing, hunting. "Bo you know the Kickinghorse Pass ?".

Of course he did. It was one of five passes, of which be had discovered three. In that particular one he had nearly lost his life. The incident, I remember, was narrated in the story of the opening of the Pacific railway, when the first train ran right through with Lady Macdonald and her husband on board. The Kickinghorse Pasß, Sir James described as on the coast of the North American Continent. From that coast, a few miles in extent only, the watersheds all take their departure — the watera that flow North to Hudson's Bay and the Arctic Sta ; those that go South to the St Lawrence; those West towards Alaska ; and those that find their way to the mightiest river-beds on earth, to the Gulf of Mexico. Such is the coast of America, and 1 am talking to one of the first men who explored the wonderful places. Arrived there, I discover that I have got to the earliest point in the scientific life of Sir James Hector, and the latest moment at which he can give me his patience, so I rise to apologise for the time I have consumed, to thank bim on your behalf for the handsome manner in which he haa placed all that time at my disposal, and then, without meeting the protesting, angry looks of books and papers, I take my departure.