Zealand Working Research Articles

Cenozoic Mollusca of New Zealand

Abstract I cannot write of this truly monumental work except in terms of almost completely unqualified enthusiasm, admiration and approval. It has been produced by two very experienced molluscan paleontologists, teamed with a scientific illustrator of the very highest ability. Working in the best tradition of a long series of distinguished New Zealand workers, they have produced a volume of which the New Zealand Geological Survey, and New Zealand itself, can be very proud.

Yersiniosis in Farmed Deer

Samples from 77 chital (Axis axis), 42 fallow (Dama dama), 26 red (Cervus elaphus), 7 rusa (Cervus timorensis) and 1 sambar deer (Cervus unicolor) were examined. Yersinia pseudotuberculosis infection was diagnosed as the cause of death in 6 (23%) of the red and 23 (30%) of the chital deer. Yersiniosis was the most common infectious cause of death diagnosed. Affected deer were usually found moribund or dead, often with faecal staining of the perineum. Gross pathology in chital included a fibrinous enterocolitis, enlarged congested mesenteric lymph nodes and multiple pale foci through the liver. Gross changes in red deer were limited to intense congestion of the intestinal mucosa and enlargement and congestion of mesenteric lymph nodes. Microscopic intestinal changes in both species consisted of microabscessation or diffuse suppurative inflammation of the intestinal mucosa with numerous bacterial colonies in the lamina propria. Multifocal suppurative mesenteric lymphadenitis was a common finding. Multifocal suppurative or non-suppurative hepatitis was frequently present in the liver of chital but was uncommon in the red deer. Yersiniosis occurred during the cooler months from June to November, with younger age classes most commonly affected. Y. pseudotuberculosis serotypes I, II and III were isolated in the ratio 17:3:0 in the chital deer and 1:1:2 in red deer. The clinical, epidemiological and bacteriological features are similar to those documented previously by New Zealand workers. The increased susceptibility to disease of red deer and chital compared to fallow deer and perhaps other species has not previously been documented.

Trends in Wage Bargaining in New Zealand: The 1988/9 Wage Round

Abstract Changes to New Zealand's labour laws enacted by the Labour Government since 1984 have placed all New Zealand employers and workers, regardless of what sector of the economy they have traditionally operated in, under the bargaining provisions of the Labour Relations Act 1987. The authors analyse bargaining outcomes for the 1988/9 wage round, the second wage round since the implementation of the Act but the first to include freely negotiated settlements covering state employees. Some evidence of changed bargaining structures is cited but the rate of change is slow. However, bargaining outcomes are showing considerable change: wage increments have been kept below the rate of inflation, with settlements compressed around 4 percent; there has been increased flexibility in the types of wage settlement, with many settlements incorporating straight monetary increases compressing internal wage relativities; broad-banding of salaries and performance related pay has been widely introduced in the general pub...

Tatau Tatau: One Big Union Altogether. The Shearers and the Early Years of the New Zealand Workers' Union

Tatau Tatau: One Big Union Altogether. The Shearers and the Early Years of the New Zealand Workers' Union

The origin of the feral dama (tammar) wallabiesMacropus eugenii, in the Rotorua area of New Zealand

Abstract Dama (tammar) wallabies (Macropus eugenii) have become established in New Zealand around Rotorua and on Kawau Island. They originated from Australia, but from which of the populations in South Australia and Western Australia is not recorded. Examination has been made of allozymic, serum protein and red cell antigenic markers in the Rotorua population. Comparisons have been made with the same markers in South Australian and Western Australian populations. The results clearly indicate that the Rotorua population is very similar to the Kangaroo Island population (South Australia), and quite distinct from the Garden Island population (Western Australia). The Rotorua population may be derived from Kangaroo Island or the now extinct Adelaide population (South Australia). The Kangaroo Island tammar is widely used in Australia for basic biological research. New Zealand workers could use Rotorua animals for the same purposes and safely compare their results with results obtained from current captive popul...

Remote sensing of the magnetospheric plasma by means of whistler mode signals

Early in the past decade of U.S. Antarctic research, the whistler method of measuring equatorial electron density was found to agree with in situ satellite electron density measurements by a radio technique. Furthermore, the whistler method of measuring the east‐west component of the convection electric field in the outer plasmasphere was found to agree, under conditions of mapping in a dipole magnetic field, with simultaneous results from incoherent scatter radar. A global model of the east‐west convection electric field in the outer plasmasphere during substorms was developed. The detection of whistlers and their use for magnetospheric diagnostics have been important elements in recent studies of burst precipitation into the ionosphere induced by whistlers and by other transient whistler mode waves propagating in the magnetosphere. Whistlers have also been used to obtain data on the L values and equatorial electron densities associated with the propagation paths of signals from the Siple VLF transmitter. The process of untrapping of downcoming wave energy from ducts in the upper ionosphere and the upward repropagation of portions of the energy following reflection in the lower ionosphere lead to the excitation of adjacent ducts as well as to upward propagation in the nonducted mode. Efficient interduct coupling has been found to occur over north‐south ionospheric distances of >1000 km. Studies of the outer limits of observed ducting revealed dayside path radii in the range 6–8 RE and nightside limits of ∼5.5 RE. Ducted propagation beyond the plasmapause was found to occur regularly in the 0000–1800 MLT time range, but with variable rates and at various locations with respect to the plasmapause position. The special features of this propagation are believed to be related to conditions of lightning excitation, ionospheric penetration, and wave‐particle interactions that are special to the region beyond the plasmasphere. New aspects of Siple wave injection experiments were demonstrated by the application of a new phase measurement method to Siple signals that did not exhibit fast temporal growth during passage through the magnetosphere. This method, a refinement of techniques developed previously by New Zealand workers, is capable of detecting fluctuations in phase path with period of ∼10 s and greater and thus can be used to study magnetospheric convection and coupling fluxes along field lines of propagation as well as pulsations associated with ultralow‐frequency perturbations of the geomagnetic field. Additional topics discussed include results from direction‐finding experiments and evidence of the dependence of whistlers upon magnetospheric wave amplification.

Books

Review of Industrial Relations; a Search for Understanding and Introduction to the Law of Employment and Attitudes of New Zealand Workers

Name changes for two New Zealand fossil molluscs

Abstract Glibert and Van de Poel (1967, p. 38) placed Lucina concinna Deshayes, 1857 in the genus Cavilucina Fischer, 1887 and in the subgenus Monitilora Iredale, 1930. On the next page they placed Loripes concinna Hutton, 1885 in the genus Cavilucina and in the subgenus Gonimyrtea Marwick, 1929 (which was erected for Loripes concinna). Thus Hutton's name became a junior secondary homonym of Deshayes', and Glibert and Van de Poel (p. 39) renamed Hutton's species Cavilucina (Gonimyrtea) exconcinna. Glibert and Van de Poel gave no references to earlier reviews of the Lucinidae that they might have followed in their drastic rearrangement of generic and subgeneric groups, so it is assumed that their classification expresses their own ideas on relationships in the family. New Zealand workers may not agree that Gonimyrtea should be ranked as a subgenus of Cavilucina, in which case they must follow Article 59 (c) of the Code, which states: “A name rejected after 1960 as a secondary homonym is to be restored as t...

Occupational Health and Safety in New Zealand: Problems and Solutions

An economic climate which promotes cost cutting, lack of resources for regulation) agencies, enforcement bodies which are reticent to enforce, legislation which is unco-ordinated and not communicated to those who need it, information which is available in university departments but not on the shop floor, and no effective sanctions in terms of penalties and increased levies against negligent employers all threaten the health and safety of New Zealand workers. These problems are outlined and improvements such as more resources for regulatory bodies, a more positive policing role for enforcement agencies, integration of legislation and administration, better information flow, effective sanctions against employers and particularly more worker involvement in occupational health and safety are proposed.

Modern Trends in Human Reproductive Physiology

For the pediatrician curious enough to pursue the life history of his patient into its prenatal phase or the obstetrician interested in more than one of his two patients, this small book will be of great usefulness. Of the twenty-one chapters, twelve are by Australian or New Zealand workers, the Editor, a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of New South Wales, among them. The international flavor is augmented by Swedish, German, and Scottish contributors.

Conditions of Escape of Radio-frequency Energy from the Sun and the Stars

IN several communications in Nature1,2,3,4 and elsewhere, various British, Australian and New Zealand workers have described experiments carried out during the War which prove conclusively that during times of solar disturbance there are large outbursts of radio-frequency energy from the sun. The wave-lengths measured vary from 1.5 metres to 30 metres (10 Mc. to 200 Mc.). On a rough estimate, the intensity of emission appears to be, as Appleton1 has shown, 104 times the value calculated from the black-body formula taking T = 6,000° K. If we assume that the radiation proceeds only from the active areas, as appears to be corroborated by the experiments now in progress at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge*, the emissivity of these regions for the range mentioned is increased nearly 107–108 times the black-body radiation.

The Fauna of New Zealand

NEW ZEALAND has provided biological science with the classical and most striking case of the effects upon a fauna of prolonged isolation. For an immense period of time it has remained a sanctuary for archaic types. The facts about the kiwis, ground-parrots, wekas and other flightless birds are quoted in perhaps every zoological course in the universities of the world. Yet, these very animals so important to science are now in the gravest danger of becoming extinct1 like the giant eagles and moas before them. The aid of zoologists in Britain and elsewhere is urgently needed to support the efforts being made by New Zealand workers to bring about reforms to save these animals, which, once lost, will never be known again. It is insufficient to have passed laws purporting to ‘protect’ them, when inadequate wild-life administration is available to enforce the laws. Active measures must be taken as soon as possible to destroy the complex of introduced pests which have ousted, or actually attacked, the defenceless native species. The problem is of the utmost importance, and we owe it to future generations, and especially to future biologists, not only in New Zealand but also throughout the rest of the world, to solve it now.

Cobalt, and Sheep Diseases

IN New Zealand, Askew and his co-workers have shown that cobalt plays a vital part in the healthy life of sheep and that small supplements of cobalt salts will cure sheep suffering from a type of anaemia. Sheep on Dartmoor are liable to a disease very similar in symptoms to those described by the New Zealand workers, and the usual practice of farmers is to send their flocks to lowland pastures in the autumn for two or three months.