PERSONAL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2536, 24 June 1909, Page 3

PERSONAL.

.Mr. G. E. Darton left for the south last evening to visit his father, Mr. Thomas Michlemoro Darton, who is seriously ill at his residence, Lawrence, Otago. Mr. Darton, senior, is 84 years of age, and had the misfortune to lose 'liis sight from ovorstudy about 10 years ago. Gifted with a powerful' intellect, he has always taken an interest in educational questions, especially in the study of the sciences of geology, astronomy, and chemistry, and has only • recently completed his life’s work by publishing a geological treatise on the ice age of the earth, entitled “The Last Chapter of the Earth’s History.” The chapters of the work originally appeared as scientific articles in the “Otago Witness. They were subsequently published in hook form by tho proprietors of that journal, and tho volume attracted attention in all parts of the Dominion. The work puts forward the, evidence for the support of what astronomers and geologists know as the “lunar hypothesis,” or the causo of the ice age by an alteration in the earth s orbit. Mr. T. M. Darton is one of Otago’s most respected pioneers. Ho has always been interested in legislation for the benefit, of the musses, and especially in regard to land settlement, and the residents -of Lawrence presented him with a gold watch as a token of appreciation of the services he had rendered to the district.