Macquarie Island reserve

At the Science Congress at Melbourne Sir Douglas Mawson, dealing with the subject of Macquarie Island and its future, said that on that tiny speck of land a wonderful population existed, some of the most interesting species not occurring anywhere else in the Australasian region. Australians must look to that spot for the only specimens of sea elephants and King penguins now existing in the Commonwealth dominions. The depredation of sealers had exterminated certain species and reduced the numbers of others. The continuance of this traffic unchecked would soon depopulate the island and leave it of no further scientific or economic importance. Several possible schemes for the future development of the island were outlined, but the lecturer emphasised that in his opinion the wisest plan would be the proclamation of the island as a national faunal reserve. — ODT, 24.1.1921.

The remarkable but littleknown basaltic columns on the Waitati slope of Mt Cargill. In their completeness they resemble on a small scale the columns of Staffa, in the Scottish Hebrides, or the Giant’s Causeway, in northern Ireland. — Otago Witness, 25.1.1921.