ANTARCTIC NIGHT BEGINS

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28267, 3 May 1957, Page 11

ANTARCTIC NIGHT BEGINS

Colours Lowered At Little America

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 2. The long Antarctic winter night began at Little America on April 24, according to a dispatch received from the United States Antarctic expedition by the information section of the American Legation in Wellington today. Bidding farewell to the sun for the last time until next August, all hands at Little America base, except those actually on watch, assembled near the flagpole for an appropriate ceremony of lowering the colours.

The temperature was 40 degrees, with the drifted snow casting long purple shadows in the setting sun’s almost horizontal rays. After the lowing of the colours, the flag was presented as a memento to Captain Dickey. Although the sun will not reappear for four months, progressively shortening periods of twilight will occur for several weeks —a period popularly referred to in Little America as the “Indian summer of the Antarctic.”

Forestry Medal.—The Schlich Memorial Medal, the highest award given by the Australian School of Forestry, has been awarded for the third time to a New Zealand student. The 1986 award was made to Mr D. H. S. Freest, who is engaged in indigenous forest research at the Forest Research Institute, Rotorua.(P.A.)