;i6 



NATURE 



[January 15, 1920 



anything more than 5 ft. being considered excep- 

 tionally large. 



There are two main auriferous belts, both running 

 north-east to south-west; the more northerly one, 

 containing all the more famous lodes, such as the 

 Day Dawn and the Brilliant, is about three miles long 

 and three-quarters of a mile wide ; the less important 

 southerly belt is of about the same length, but never 

 exceeds 200 yards in width. A small number of scat- 

 tered mines have been worked outside these belts, but 

 most of these are now closed down. The noteworthy 

 feature of all the lodes is that, whilst the fissures per- 

 sist in depth, the gold values do not, the mines as a 

 whole showing progressive impoverishment in depth. 

 To quote the author :— " It can be affirmed that pay 

 shoots between the surface and the looo-ft. level were 

 richer than those between looo-ft. and 2000-ft. levels, 

 and that these were correspondingly richer than those 

 found below 2000 ft." 



THE NEW ZEALAND SCIENCE 

 CONGRESS, 1919. 



XJ EW ZEALAND occupies a unique and advan- 

 '^ ' tageous position for scientific work. Situated 

 in the midst of the vast Pacific, she has splendid 

 opportunities for the pursuit of the fascinating studies 

 of oceanography and the meteorology and astronomy 

 of the southern hemisphere. Innumerable problems 

 in geography, geology, and physiography, of an en- 

 tirely novel and supremely interesting kind, present 

 themselves, not only in New Zealand itself, but also in 

 the surrounding Pacific and further south in the mys- 

 teries of the Antarctic. In her flora and fauna and 

 native races, in her varied mineral wealth, in her large 

 reserves of water-power, both fluvial and tidal, there 

 are endless opportunities for the man of science. In 

 her political, social, and economic institutions she is 

 bound to make valuable contributions to experimental 

 sociology ; and it is the experimental side that chiefly 

 matters and stands most in need of encouragement in 

 these days of nebulous theories and unsubstantial 

 visions. 



It is perhaps only natural that, in her present stage 

 of development and in view of the smallness of her 

 population. New Zealand should appear to limit her 

 research outlook chiefly to matters of a practical and 

 utilitarian nature. In such a purely agricultural com- 

 munity it is only to be expected that the biological 

 sciences — applied botany and zoology — should occupy 

 a predominant position, as is clearly evidenced by the 

 election of a distinguished botanist as president of the 

 New Zealand Institute and Science Congress, and 

 also by an analysis of the contents of the first fifty 

 volumes of the institute's Transactions. Such analysis 

 discloses that, of the papers contributed, zoology 

 claims 1143; botany, 654; geology, 503; anthropology, 

 204; physics (including astronomy and meteorology), 

 152; chemistry, 135; engineering, 76; mathematics, 

 40; economics, 37; history, 34; metaphysics, 22; 

 medicine, 20; literature, 15; education and statistics, 

 12 each. It must be remembered, however, that many 

 valuable contributions do not appear in the Transac- 

 tions ; some are published in scientific journals in 

 Great Britain ; the Cieological Bulletins and the Palae- 

 ontological Bulletins of the New Zealand Government 

 absorb others. The Polynesian Journal takes most of 

 the papers on anthropology. 



In commenting on the predominance of the natural 

 history papers, the president. Dr. Cockayne, pointed 

 out that this is only to be expected in a new land with 

 both flora and fauna so little investigated and contain- 

 ing so much that is endemic. Most of the papers are 

 devoted to classification. "This must have been so; it 



NO. 2620, VOL. 104] 



is the natural evolutionary process in the history of 

 biological research the world over. ... As for chem- 

 istry and physics, which make but a poor showing in 

 the work of the New Zealand Institute, little progress 

 can be made in these sciences without well-equipped 

 chemical and physical laboratories and men specially 

 trained in such. Laboratories of this class are now 

 attached to the various university colleges, and chemi- 

 cal and physical contributions — the work of trained 

 students — are slowly but surely finding a place in the 

 Transactions." 



When it is remembered that the institute only 

 receives the small sum of 500L per annum as Govern- 

 ment grant it is a matter for amazement that so much 

 work has been accomplished. A levy of 200J. was 

 made on the afiiliated societies, which could ill afford 

 it, but yet there are scarcely funds sufficient to publish 

 the Transactions. Many pajjers of great value await 

 publication, and much work of national interest awaits 

 initiation. Government financial support and public 

 sympathy are both badly needed, and it is hoped that 

 the Science Congress, the first of its kind in New 

 Zealand, will go far to supply these needs. The 

 Government has, as a matter of fact, promised tc do 

 its utmost to place the institute on a firm financial 

 footing, and has already made sf>ecial grants for 

 economic science. 



The New Zealand Institute consists of a number of 

 incorporated societies, namely, the Auckland Institute, 

 the Wellington Philosophical Society, the Philosophi- 

 cal Institute of Canterbury, the Otago Institute, the 

 Hawke's Bay Philosophical Institute, the Poverty Bay 

 Institute, the Manawatu Philosophical Society, the 

 Wanganui Philosophical Society, and the Nelson In- 

 stitute. The management of the New Zealand Insti- 

 tute is vested in a board of governors representative 

 of the incorporated societies and of the Government, 

 and this board meets annually in Wellington in 

 January. 



The Science Congress, organised by the institute 

 this year and held in Canterbury, was the first of its. 

 kind in the Dominion, and owed its inception largely 

 to prooosals for the reform of the institute made by 

 Dr. J. -Allan Thomson in jqjy. Dr. Thomson sjiid : 

 " In its relation to the public the New Zealand Insti- 

 tute should, but does not, hold a position analogous 

 to that of the British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, the body which most keeps the public in 

 touch with science, and from which most of the im- 

 provements in the State attitude to science have had 

 their origin. The Australasian Institute for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science meets too seldom in New Zea- 

 land to be effective in this direction." The Congress 

 was opened by the Governor-General of the Dominion, 

 who, in his address, enumerated four important 

 matters for investigation and study, namely, (i) nublic 

 health and pandemic disease; (2) afforestation; (3) the 

 mineral oil industrv ; and (4) fisheries. The Hon. 

 G. W. Russell, Minister of Internal AfTairs, urged 

 the development of natural resources, especially hydro- 

 electric power, and promised the institute adequate 

 financial supptort. "The State must be prepared to 

 foot the bill. I therefore urge the Science Congress 

 to press upon the Government that without Govern- 

 mental expenditure science cannot grow and expand ; 

 that scientists cannot live on air or on the hope of 

 nosthumous fame ; and that therefore, if the Dominion 

 is to develop bv means of science, adequate funds must 

 be provided for research, for the training of teachers 

 and professors, for the equipment of laboratories and 

 staffs, and for the creation of the scientific atmosphere 

 of which I have snoken." 



The president of the Congress (and of the New 

 Zraland Institutel, Dr. L. Cockayne, gave a brief 



