World of Nature

New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 872, 20 April 1956, Page 7

World of Nature

T may be true that "the proper study of Mankind is Man," but nearly all of us prefer to take constant refreshing glimpses at the other more innocent forms of life. Though in the majority. of cases the cares of adult life preclude us from retaining the "collections" of our childhood, memories of bird-nesting, of butterflies embalmed in match-boxes or albums of squashed flowers help us to share nostalgically ‘in the achievemients of the modern naturalist. The popularity on the air of such speakers as Crosbie Morrison and Dr. R. A. Falla indicates the appeal that natural history has for most listeners. A selection of three programmes from ‘a BBC series entitled The Naturalist will be broadcast soon from 3YC and later from other stations. They are produced by Desmond Hawkins and Tony Soper, and each programme takes the

form of a di8cussion under the chairmanship of Maxwell Knight. The first of them will be about whales, the largest living mammals. "Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook?" queries the.Book of Job; this is answered today by the huge _factoryships and their attendant chasers that every year steam south to hunt the whale. These floating towns and_ the speedy chasers mounted | with the Sven Foynharpoon gun are a far cry from the first" whalers who attacked | the whale in the shallows with spear and lance. New Zealand’s connection with whaling has persisted for a long time, and is an important one. In the Auckland Islands lie the bones .of a M. Lefrancois who, according to D’Urville,, committed suicide when a harpoon gun he had _- invented turred out a total failure, And it was men like Paddy Gilroy in the big Chance with a crew of Maori friends and relations. that developed the

Solander grounds, later immortalised in Bullen’s Cruise of the Cachalot. In’ this programme, Dr. Harrison Matthews, Director of the London Zoo, discusses the subject of whales with Dr. F. C. Fraser, whale expert at the Natural History Museum imLondon, who has himself hunted them in the Antarctic.

The other talks to be heard are Plant and Animal Introductions, dealing with the movements of plants and animals from country to country, the speakers being J. Edward Lousely, a distinguished amateur botanist, and Dr. Maurice Burton, nature editor of the Jllustrated Lon-

don News; and lastly, Popular Fallacies in Natural History, in which Dr. Burton and. L. Hugh Newman, an entomologist and butterfly farmer, discuss the erroneous beliefs to which many people cling when they judge merely by appearances. The talk on whales will be heard from 3YC at 7.30 on April 28.