WATER DIVINING.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 77, 31 March 1928, Page 14

WATER DIVINING.

JUDGMENT PLATS ITS PART. EYE FOR COUNTRY NEEDED. "Use diviners if you will, but use judgment as well," was the advice given by Professor Bartrum, of the Auckland University College, in a lecture upon "Water Divining" at the Auckland Agricultural Science Club last evening. H'J said be did not doubt the honesty of water diviners, but there were so many caseß-Where the diviner must be successful for geological reasons that it was a question whether the gift of divination really operated.

In criticising the practice of water divining Professor Bartrum said he had never seen a case where water had been found under circumstancea that geological data proved were definitely against it. That led him to be sceptical. Several diviners had told him that it was useless to go to a spot where there was no water. The successful diviners appeared to be men who had a good idea of the natural conditions necessary for the existence of underground water. Take them to a district that they know nothing about and the chances were against success.

"I always locate water at the comers of paddocks where it is most convenient for stock." a diviner had told the professor. Most diviners, continued the lecturer, made use of the divining stick, but the mystery of it seemed to be explainable by the fact that the diviner subconsciously expected water below, and was nervously affected. There mijiht also be cases of telepathy where a diviner was working over a spot that other diviners had tested and found indications of an underground flow.