SCIENCE CONGRESS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 96, 17 January 1935, Page 9

SCIENCE CONGRESS

Opening at Melbourne PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS (Received January 16, 11.30 p.m.) Melbourne, January 16. Informal preliminary proceedings occurred at the opening of the congress of the New Zealand and Australian Association for the Advancement .of Science. One of the earliest decisions was to hold the next congress in January, 1937, at Auckland. Sir David Rivett, chief executive officer of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research was elected president, succeeding Sir Douglas Mawson. ‘ Delegates were welcomed by the Lord Mayor. Responding, Sir Douglas Mawson said: This will be a very active congress. Our object is to develop general interest in science and to give the public an opportunity to realise that science is worth while. In his presidential address Sir Douglas Mawson, after dealing with the whaling and mineral wealth of the Antarctic, .suggested that the Governments of Australia should take early steps to dev,elop and preserve their inheritance. Since 190$ 300.000 whales;, valued at £70,000,000. had been taken. He suggested that before long operations would be conducted there on .the lines of the Hudson Bay Company. He saw no reason to delay the dispatch of modern pleasure summer cruises among tiie pack ice. NATURE OF ANTARCTIC / ‘ History of Discovery SIR D. MAWSON’S ADDRESS Following is an abstract of the presidential address delivered by Sir Douglas Mawson: — The theoretical speculation of the cosmographers of classical times postulated the existence of an extensive land mass terminating the earth to the south of the then known world. This fallacy was perpetuated in maps of the Middle Ages. Even after the globular form of the earth was demonstrated and geographic knowledge vastly enriched by the remarkable activity of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the belief in a vast southern continent, extending in places northward even io the tropics, still persisted. The random observations of the everincreasing number of explorers penetrating tiie southern hemisphere in the sixteenth, seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries were usually recorded and interpreted in the light of the already accepted existence of such a land mass. Thus isolated land discoveries in the south, even after Africa and South America had been outlined and accorded their proper relations in terrestrial configuration, were prone to be regarded as portions of the hypothetical land. It is a fascinating story of maritime adventures conducted under difficult and hazardous circumstances that even- ( tually succeeded in relegating only to high southern latitudes the possibility of notable land occurrences. With the advance of science and the increasing demand for data concerning all parts of the earth in every department of knowledge, a new phase in South Bolar exploration commenced about the year 1840, and has continued to the present day. In the later years of this period, there has developed also great commercial activity in the nature of whaling in Antarctic seas which has stimulated and assisted the general progress of exploration. In general terms, the results achieved to the present day have been the establishment of the existence of a real continent located within the polar circle, in contradistinction to the hypothetical continent of vastly greater dimensions earlier postulated: in addition, Antarctic land has been found to comprise very numerous islands,’ both large and small; also science has been greatly enriched by records secured relating to climate, oceanography, geology, zoology, and other departments of inquiry. During the last 40 years Australia and New Zealand, on account of their close geographical relationship with tiie Antarctic, have taken an everincreasing interest in that region. Thus several expeditions have been partly financed from these shores; others have been almost entirely the product of Australia and (New Zealand Our national interest to-day is expressed by the existence of the two extensive Antarctic dependencies, the Ross Dependency of New Zealand, extending between longitudes 160 degrees east and 150 degrees west, and the Australian Antarctic Dependency comprising most of the land between longitudes 45 degrees west and 160 degrees east. An era of intense activity it> Antarctic whale fisheries has now been in operation for several decade.- Ibis industry has. for some time vast, been extremely lucrative. The immense coastline of Antarctica and tne spacious off-lying seas richly stocked with marine life should, if properly administrated, assume ever-increasing commercial importance; particularly so to countries so closely located thereto as the Commonwealth of Australia and the Dominion of New Zealand.