GREAT GATHERING OF SCIENTISTS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 106, 29 January 1935, Page 8

GREAT GATHERING OF SCIENTISTS

Conference at Melbourne

PAPER BY DR. KIDSON ON WEATHER FORECASTS

Several of the New Zealand delegates to the congress of the New Zealand and Australian Association for the Advancement of Science, which was held in Melbourne this month, returned to Wellington yesterday by the Marama from Sydney. These included the director of the Government Meteorological Office Dr. E. Kidson, and rhe director of' the Auckland War Memorial Museum, Mr. G. E. Archey. Both praised t he organisation and success of the congross. Congresses of the association are held every two years, and the next one will take place at Auckland in 1937.

Dr. Kidson said the congress was a most successful one. It had a membership of over a thousand, which was very large for association meetings. A great deal of interest was shown by the general public in the work of the association, and the newspapers gave very good accounts of the various papers. On the first day there was a general meeting of the council of the association, at which general business was conducted and the programme for the congress finally determined. The locus of the next meeting was also decided, and the president for that congress elected in the person of Sir David Rivoli, the chief executive officer of the Commonwealth council of Scientific and Industrial Research. In tne afternoon the Governor of Victoria, Lord Huntingfield, received members and delegates at a garden party at Government House, and in the evening Sir Douglas Maeson gave an address on “Unveiling the Antarctic.” This was an account of Antarctic exploration from earliest days to the recent discoveries of Admiral It. E. Byrd, followed toy suggestions as to the direction which future investigations should take. Sir Douglas also discussed the natural resources and wealth of the Antarctic.

Dr. P. Marshall, of Wellington, bad the honour of delivering one of the public addresses, his subject being “Volcanoes of the Pacific.” His lecture was very well received. Sir George Julius, chairman of the Commonwealth Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, lectured on the unemployment problem. Norwegian Forecasting. Two papers were delivered by Dr. Kidson on the application of the modern method of forecasting developed by the Norwegians to Australian and New Zealand conditions. His papers, he said, were given in two parts, the first dealing with the theoretical aspects and the second with the practical application. The latter was given before a combined meeting of sections A and I’, A being the physics, astronomy and mathematics groups and P the geography group. His lecture was illustrated by a typical series of weather charts whiclj had been analysed at Wellington iu the Norwegian method. Considerable interest was shown in this work, and discussion followed each of the papers. 1 Mr. Archey said he was interested particularly in the work of the anthropology section. A feature of the papers • presented to that section was the number of Invaluable investigations into the life and magical and religious beliefs of the aborigines of Australia. These showed quite clearly how the system of relationship through marriage and their arrangement of totemic plans were definitely related to their system of land ownership. As one speaker put it, the ownership by the lands was associated with the ancestral spirits of the people. Aspects <of Maori Life. The section was shown most interesting cinema films of the mode of life of aborigines in Central Australia who were still living absolutely in their native state. These films were prepared as part of the conjoint research of the University of Adelaide and the South Australian Museum. There were very well organised departments of anthropology in the Australian universities, and the work being done was not only of great interest as showing what may have been the earlier stages of society in primitive man, but it was also of a distinct practical service ns a guide to those who had to administer those primitive people. Papers on various phases of Maori life had been contributed by Dr., Wi Repa, of the East Coast, and Dr. I. L. G. Sutherland, of Victoria University College, The anthropology section had been presided over by Dr. Elkin, Professor of Anthropology at Sydney University, and he had been the inspiration of of the aboriginal researches' by students in all parts of Australia.

Mr. Archey said a good deal of work and organisation would be necessary to make the Auckland congress in 1937 as successful as that held in Melbourne.