THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, AUGUST 11. 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8208, 11 August 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, AUGUST 11. 1906.

An appeal has been made by Professor Jaggar, of Harvard University, a specialist in seismology, for the endowment of a laboratory for the investigation and measurement of earth movements. He declares that the time has ooifie when man mast make some practical resistance against such phenomena as wrought havoc in Italy and America, and he believes that the time will come when a systematic scientific study of earth physics will reduoe the risk from earthquakes and volcanoes. There are, he points out, plenty of observatories for astronomical study, but there is no equipment nor system for the more immediately praotioal subject of the movement of the earth's crust. The nearest approach to snoh an institution is thw geophysical laboratory, endowed by Mr Carnegie, which is doing theoretical work of the highest value, but such work does not concern itself with the earth as a laboratory, and there is needed an institution "whioh shall be devoted to the observation and measurement of earth movements, and primarily with a view to the practical application of such studios." Professor Jaggar states that he is confident that if the laboratory he suggests were established, earthquakes ani voloanio eruptions could be made ordinary risks for insurance iu a few years. The laboratory would also be used to investigate the possibility of

utilising the beat of the earth, 1 wbiob, if properly ooatrolled, may eventually replace ooal as a producer of power. In comparing the need for such investigation with the expenditures in other brandies of natiunal effort, he points out that Japan has lost 50,000 lives from earthquakes and tidal waves since 1891 roughly two thirds of the number lost in the war. The suggestion that earthquakes will one das be predicted suggests some interesting speculations. The saving of human life would be ['considerable, but the worry [of life would be greatly increased by the anticipation of disaster. Imagine Wellington warned of an approaching serious eartnquaKe—the flight of those vita faith in the Government laboratory, the sceptioism of the unbelievers, the agony of those who had left relatives and friends who bad refused 'to leave, the constant dread of disaster, the paralysing of business. And one unfulfilled prophecy Would, we imagine, discredit the prophets for ever.

Aided no doubt by the rather highlycoloured paragraphs as to its habits, which appear from time to time in English and Amerioan papers, the kaa has attained a celebrity second to none among the birds of New Zealand. It is therefore all the more strange that, chough sume 40 years have passed since its carnivorous propensities came under the notioe of station owners, there should be numbers of people in New Zealand who profess to believe that the kea is a muoh maligned bird, and that it owes its reputation for attacking living sheep to the lively imaginations of shepherds and musterers. A prolonged controversy as to the guilt or innocence of the bird arose out of the meeting of the Amuri sheepowners, held in the early part of the year to urge the Government to assist in. its destruction, and as 'a result Mi G. K. Marriner, of Canterbury College, to find out, if possible, the aotual faots. The result of his investigations he presented in an interesting paper to the Philosophical Institute recently. The evidenue of some 50 or 6'o eye-witnesses—station-owners, managers, shepherds and rangers—convicts the kea of the orime laid to its charge, that of attacking sheep' to get at their fat, and thus causing the death of large numbers. An ounce of this testimony is worth a pound of theory and the friends of the kea will, indeed, be hard to convince if they still claim that it is not guilty. Aa Mr Marriner pointed out, says the Ohristchurch Press, the hours during which the bird oarries on its depredations and the loneliness and altitude of its habitat are good reasons why comparatively few people can speak with authority on its habits. He is probably right in contending that the r fact that the kea attacks the sheep's kidney fat and kidneys is merely accidental, due to their'position in the body coinciding with the part on which the kea can most easily retain a firm grin of its victim. Tbo only point whioh Mr Marriner could not clear up was the reason which .induced a previously harmless parrot to prey upon sheep and become such a pest that each ce of its tribe oarries a price upon its head. Several ingenious theories have teen put forward to account for such a surprising and disastrous change of taste, but the problem still remains in the region . of conjeoture.