MACQUARRIE ISLAND.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 December 1915, Page 4

MACQUARRIE ISLAND.

WIREI-ESS STATION CLOSED. AN UNFORTUNATE PREDICAMENT. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. For the time being no more meteorological reports will be received in New Zealand from Macquanic Island. The wireless station, which was e&tublished by Sir Douglas Mawson as a branch of his Antarctic expedition, and was subsequently taken over by the Commonwealth Government and the Dominion Meteorologist reported yesterday that the station had been closed temporarily, the final message having been received on Wednesday. It appears that the Commonwealth Weather Bureau a k Melbourne has sent away about ten members of its staff in connection with the war, and is unablo any longer to spare the skilled meteorologist who has been stationed on Macquarrie Island.

New Zealand has contributed towards the support of the station, which has proved of the utmost importance,in the investigation of weather conditions in the southern hemisphere, and for this reason it is considered to be rather a pity that the station has to be clo.'ed at the present time, especially as Sir Ernest Shackletori's Expedition is still in the South, and the plant would have been a most important link iii co-ordinating Antarctic conditions with those experienced in lo\yer latitudes. Messages first began to be transmitted to Wellington from the Island on Mardi 12, 1912.