LIV PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS* 



Reference has already been made to meteorology. Our Federal 

 Meteorologist, Mr. H. A. Hunt, informs me that the weather data, 

 which are sent him by wireless from Macquarie Island, prove the 

 closest connexion between our Commonwealth weather conditions 

 and those of the Sub-Antarctic. The Rev. D. C. Bates, the 

 Meteorologist to the Dominion of New Zealand, confirms this rela- 

 tion between the weather conditions of Macquarie and those of New 

 Zealand. It is true that Macquarie Island, being west of Sydney, 

 supplies data of more value for forecasting in New Zealand than in 

 Australia ; but these data are absolutely essential for a full under- 

 standing of Australian weather conditions, and it is to be hoped 

 that, in the near future, arrangements may be made for the con- 

 tinuous upkeep of this station. The cost is estimated at only about 

 £800 to £1000 a year. For the benefit of commerce and science, 

 it is greatly to be hoped that this suggestion will be strongly sup- 

 ported. The fact that the Australasian Wireless Company, with a 

 comparatively small l|-kilowatt dynamo, have been able to trans- 

 mit messages which have easily been received in Sydney, and at 

 times even in Suva and Perth, speaks volumes for the perfection 

 of their system and the skill of their operator. 



Members of the Association will, I trust, be pleased to hear 

 that a complete wireless receiving outfit has recently been dis- 

 patched in charge of Caj^tain Davis to Adclie Land. This should 

 be capable of receiving messages transmitted from a distance of 

 fully 2,000 miles. Up to the present, Mawson's wireless messages, 

 with wearisome reiterations, affirm the fact that they have been 

 unable so far to receive a single message from anywhere. 



It is now hoped that, as soon as the Aurora reaches Mawson's 

 base, messages may at once be freely exchanged between Australia 

 and Adelie Land, either via Macqviarie Island or direct, and what 

 is most important, time signals may be interchanged between the 

 Melbourne Observatory and Adelie Land : and so, with the help of 

 Mr. P. Baracchi, for the first time in the history of the Antarctic 

 exploration, a fundamental meridian of longitude may be accurately 

 established for Antarctica.^ 



The transmission of accurate time signals will also much enhance 

 the value of the magnetic and other observations. 



In the charting of a new coast, much valuable help is likely 

 to be rendered by an able and enthusiastic young Dutch geologist, 

 J. Van Waterschoot Van der Gracht, who is a brother of the 

 Government Geologist of the Netherlands, and has also dis- 

 tinguished himself in West Antarctica in making accurate and 

 most artistic cartographic drawings of the Antarctic coast and 

 that of Terra del Fuego. 



' A short time after this was written, almost daily aommunication has been established by 

 wireless between Dr. Mawson's base at Ad61ie and Australasia. 



