40 



MACQUARIE ISLAND AND ITS FUTURE. 



By 



Sir Dougj^s Mawson, Kt.B., D.Sc, B.E.. O.B.E. 



Plates I.-VII. 



(Read 12th June, 1922.) 



Macquarie Island has recently assumed an importance in 

 the public mind far beyond that suggested by its modest 

 proportions. This distinction emanates from its wonderful 

 population of quaint Subantarctic* life. From the days of 

 its discovery in the year 1810, it has ever been remarked by 

 visitors to its shores as a wonder island of marine bird and 

 seal life. 



The hand of man has, alas! cast a shadow over its myriad 

 inhabitants, ancj MTought irreparable havoc; but this devas- 

 tation is not yet so complete as that of the more accessible 

 islands to the south of New Zealand, where the destruction 

 of the native fauna is much further advanced. 



In the consideration of its animal population, the island 

 is quadruply unique in the Australasian seas. Firstly, for 

 the abundance of the life; secondly, for the variety of species 

 frequenting its shores, some, like the King penguin and the 

 Sea-elephant, breeding nowhere else in Australasian waters; 

 thirdly, for the fact that it is the only speck of land in the 

 vast expanse of ocean tg the south of Australasia and New 

 Zealand between latitude 52 degrees south and the Antarctic 

 Circle, and is consequently the only possible breeding place 

 for such life in those seas; finally, for the fortunate circum- 

 stance that up to the present man has not completely wreck- 

 ed nature's handiwork, though certain species of life for- 

 merly abundant are now extinct, and others so greatly re- 

 duced that they are in danger of complete extermination. 



In these days the nations of the world are taking 

 council. Realising the economic and scientific value of per- 

 petuating, as far as practically possible, the varied forms 

 of life which, in association with man, populate mother 

 earth, they are making more and more provisions to ensure 

 the continuance of species. 



•ThiB Hpellintr, in prcft-rcnce U> "Huh-Antarctic," U mlupttd in con 

 formity with the clcrt»i<in of the PhiloHophicnl ln«titute of Canter- 

 bury, N.Z., in conn<!ction with their Keport on the Suhuntarrtic iHlnnclH 

 of New ZenJand. puhlishid in IJlO'J. It in thua made n deflnitc and 

 specific rcKional name 



