News Notes 
Ninth Pacific Science Congress 
The Ninth Pacific Science Congress of the 
Pacific Science Association will take place in 
Bangkok, November 18 to December 9, 1957. 
It is being held under the auspices of His 
Majesty’s Government of Thailand and the 
Science Society of Thailand. 
Secretary-General of the Congress is Dr. 
Charng Ratanarat, Department of Science, Min- 
istry of Industry, Bangkok, Thailand. 
Present plans call for organization of the 
Congress into these divisions: Geology and 
Geophysics, Meteorology, Oceanography, Fish- 
eries, Zoology, Entomology, Botany, Conserva- 
tion, Museums, Soil and Land Classification, 
Forest Resources, Crop Improvement, Coconut 
Problems, Animal Improvement, Chemistry in 
the Development of Natural Resources, An- 
thropology and Social Sciences, Public Health 
and Medical Sciences, and Nutrition. — Pacific 
Science Association, Information Bulletin. 
Pacific Radiocarbon Dates 
An article in Science (124:3224, 12 Oct. 
1956) presents the first set of radiocarbon dates 
released by Professor H. R. Crane of the Uni- 
versity of Michigan Radiocarbon Dating Lab- 
oratory. Pacific dates include a series from 
Japan, Korea, China, and Manchuria, as well as 
from Pacific islands. 
For the Pacific islands, there is a series of 
nine dates from materials collected for the Uni- 
versity of California expedition, 1952, by E. W. 
Gifford and Dick Shutler, Jr., from New Cale- 
donia. This is the greatest number of dates 
covering the longest cultural time-span that has 
been obtained for any Pacific island. The ter- 
minal dates are 2800 ± 350, and 615 ± 300. 
The oldest date, circa 844 B. C, is the earliest 
radiocarbon date for man in Melanesia. 
The New Caledonians speak a Malayo-Poly- 
nesian language. As the linguistic relations of 
New Caledonian and other M-P languages in 
Polynesia and Melanesia are presently being 
worked on, it is hoped that through the method 
of glottochronology and the radiocarbon method 
it will be possible to relate the occupation of 
New Caledonia to both Polynesia and Mela- 
nesia. 
For Fiji, (University of California expedition 
of 1947, E. W. Gifford), there are six dates, of 
which the oldest is 2000 ± 500. 
For purposes of comparison, the earliest radio- 
carbon date for man in the Hawaiian islands 
is A. D. 1004 ± 180. 
This series of radiocarbon dates marks a major 
advance in assembling a series of dates for 
Oceania adequate to establish the temporal 
framework for the human occupation of the 
area. — Pacific Science Association, Information 
Bulletin. 
137 
