SIR DOUGLAS MAWSON

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20105, 26 March 1928, Page 8

SIR DOUGLAS MAWSON

NOTED EXPLORER INTERESTED IN NEW ZEALAND FIORDLAND. It is only a year since Sir Douglas Mawson was in New Zealand on his way bark from England, and he ar- ; rived this week at Wellington from j Sydney by the Marama to spend a few j weeks in the Dominion before leaving again for America and England on business combined with pleasure. Sir Douglas Mawson, who is looking the picture of good health, said that, as a geologist, .he was very much interested in the New Zealand fiords,, which many travellers and scientists considered to be the finest in the world —much more picturesque an? awe-in-pi ring, for example, than the Norwegian fiords, which, Sir Douglas said, were bare and bald as compared with the rich drapery of primeval forest which cloaked the steep sides of the picturesque Milford Gorge and Dusky Sounds. He intended to spend, a little time there to try to find-out for himself whether these fiords were the result of ice action in the glacial period, as many contended, or just oceanfilled rifts or cracks in the earth’s surface-

face. “I think it was your late Mr. Morgan, a geologist of note, who first suggested that the Southern fiords were not the result of glacial action, but were simply great cracks of some remote period. Air J. W. Gregory, who a J so wrote a book, on the origin of fiords, was inclined to agree with Mr -Morgan, despite certain evidence to the contrary adduced by other geologists who visited the place. It is, therefore, a sort of show place for the geologist, and I am looking forward; to my visit. A Magnificent Spectacle. • “It is just a pity that Milford I Sound appears to be a little oft* the I track,” said Sir Douglas, “as it is ia really wonderful sight. Some years I ago, I believe there used to be excursions to the Sound, and on occasions it he -Melbourne steamers would call (there. Surely if that sort of thing (were done twenty years ago, it could jbe done now. as there must be more (people travelling round looking for the unusual in nature now than then. Milford is too precious a jewel to be hid- ( den away from the world, and visited by only a few dozen people every sum-

mer. Being interested in the Antarctic, and its world of waters, Sir Douglas | confessed to being anything but elated •as to the success of the various whaljin companies which have been oper- ' ating in Antarctic waters on this side I of the globe. j “I have been at some pains recentjiy.’’ said Sir Douglas, “in urging upon (the Commonwealth Government, the necessity of forming and exercising I some control of whaling in the Australian sector of Antarctica!! waters, where there are great whaling possibilities. I “You in New Zealand have Norwegian companies whaling in the Ross | Sea and in those territorial waters I which extend to the east of the Sea, I but in these cases you exercise control; but there’ is another company ’working out of Hobart, in New Zealand’s Antarctic-ail waters, which is i not controlled in any way. It is true i that all the ships have return er’4 with lull cargoes before the end of the sea- I son. That may continue for a few years, but without such control as I am urging the Government of Australia to exert, such harvests may not always reward the many whaling ventures that are likely to be based on it he bountiful season just ended. Close Co-operation Needed. “The situation calls for rigid control and close co-operation, so that such a thing as killing everything ar random will not dvnudp the sea of whales. The whaling business at the jFalkland Islands is carefully preserved. Only persons or companies obtaining a permit from the committee of control, sitting in London, can hunt whales in those waters, and any abuse of the privileges extended by such people may mean a reduction in the number of permits issued, indiscriminate slaughter may easily produce ba»'< seasons and heavy losses, but if conI trol is wisely exercised the seasons may be made uni formally satisfacI tory.”* ' Asked as to the uses of whale oil, ■ Sir Douglas Mawson said that there I were many. One well-known virtue •was its valuable properties in the . ‘uss.iig of leather. But it was very ! rich in glycerine, ami in war time be- . i<-a!iie an urgent need for the supply of [nitroglycerine, a service to which ; most of the oil from South Georgia 1 ; was put in war rime. One other of its . uses was its utility in tempering steel in the manufacture of cannon, whilst the residuum of fat was, or could be, < he understood, converted into a kind of margarine, for human consumption. i Sir Douglas stated that he would • 'probably be from two to three weeks |iri New Zealand.