CALL OF THE ICE: FIFTY YEARS OF NEW ZEALAND IN ANTARCTICA

摘要

This comprehensive book, the sixth by the author, is very timely for the several 50th anniversaries it commemorates. As well as its principal subject the combination of the International Geophysical Year (IGY), foundation of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, and negotiation of the Antarctic Treaty are all relevant. New Zealand was a major contributor to all these international events. The author has written several books and many papers on this subject that he knows both from practical and theoretical aspects.rnThe book starts with a general introduction to the interest of New Zealand in the Ross Sea region, which was designated the Ross Dependency in 1923. Indeed it was the foundation of the New Zealand Antarctic Society in 1933 that began a slow, but continuous, effort to strengthen the interest of the government (and subsequently in the conservation of the historic huts). The early part of the book concisely summarises activities in that region and includes brief mentions of New Zealand activities elsewhere in the Antarctic, notably with the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914, and the British, Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expeditions of 1929-1930 and 1930-1931.