Research Grantees Reports

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 79, 1951, Page xviii

Research Grantees Reports Reports of Research Grantees Briggs, Dr. L. H., who received £25 from the special grant of £100, has not yet returned from England, where he proposed to purchase material and equipment for chemical researches. Parry, Miss G., who was granted £40 for research on Sea Anemones from the special grant of £100, reported on the 23rd December, 1948, that she had completed an extensive collecting excursion in the Auckland District, and she detailed the places visited and the species collected or inspected. She was leaving for England and hoped to have the work completed for a Review of New Zealand Anemones by the time she reached England. She intended to discuss certain problems with regard to the work with Professor Stephenson, of the University of Wales, and Professor Carlgren, of the University of Lund, before publishing the work. She asked if the Society would consider the publication of the whole survey as a separate Bulletin or provide some grant to cover the cost of a large paper containing many illustrations. The whole of the grant had been expended. Hutton Grants Battey, Mr. M. H., who was granted £30 from the Hutton Fund for an investigation of the igneous rocks and general geology of Cape Kerikeri district, North Auckland, reported that two visits of two or three weeks' duration have been made to the area and the whole of the coastline of the peninsula has been traversed, in so far as it is accessible by land, with the exception of three and a-quarter miles, and the greater part of the inland portion has been examined. A large suite of about 240 specimens has been collected for microscopic study and megascopic comparison. The sectioning of the rocks is proceeding, but the work is being delayed by the non-arrival of the petrographic microscope on order from England. All the specimens collected and the thin sections as they are made are being placed in the Auckland Museum. Expenses to date amount to £8 1s 8d. McKenzie, Mr. D. W., who was granted £44 for aerial photography of Wellington, has reported that no commercial firm would undertake the type of work and detailed specification required and the work is now being done with aerial cameras in the possession of the Geography Department of Victoria University College. There have been only six occasions during the past nine months when the conditions were suitable, and on three of these flights were made and negatives taken which already have been of use. Some of these have been incorporated in a work on “The Geology of Wellington,” to be published by the Education Department. Other photographs are being used in a publication on the Sinclair Sheet of the 1:25,000 Survey of New Zealand, which will be available

to schools from the Geography Department of Victoria University College towards the end of 1949. Total expenses to date are £18 1s 2d. Te Punga, Mr. M. Very little has been done on the geological aspects of paleobotany and petrography for which Mr. Te Punga was granted £30 in 1946, because of the illness of the grantee during the latter part of the year. Cone, Dr. Greta, who was granted £50 for research on Fungi, has utilised the grant in the purchase of books and in collecting trips round Levin, the Tararuas, the Orongorongo Water Reserve, Nelson, etc. A full report on the work will be submitted at a later date. Richardson, Professor L. R., Bary, Mr. B., who were granted £30 from the Hutton Fund for observational flights to observe the blooming of Cyclotrichium in Wellington Harbour, reported on the 26th April that two flights were undertaken over Wellington Harbour and also over Cook Strait to check its distribution in open water and in parts of the Sounds. It was found that Cyclotrichium could be identified in all the Sounds, but not in Cook Strait, although blooms were found just to the south of French Pass, indicating that it occurs in open-sea conditions. General conclusions indicate that patent blooming is a phenomenon of semi-enclosed waters—that Cyclotrichium blooming in the harbour is carried through the harbour mouth and dispersed in Cook Strait. The incidence of phenomenon is such that the blooming of Cyclotrichium is to be regarded as a major seasonal event for our waters. There is one potential practical application in that it photographs from the air and is an excellent indicator of the movements of the superficial layers of water, sufficiently so that movement of water through the harbour mouth at Wellington was traced for seven miles along the coast. The two flights cost £27 8s 4d. On the motion of Dr. Marwick, the reports presented by Hutton and other research grantees were adopted.