SUNSHINE AND RAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 287, 4 December 1930, Page 6

SUNSHINE AND RAIN.

FACTS ABOUT OUR CLIMATE. V* I ■ ' > (To the Editor.) . ' '''. "Rain-Soaked" and "Moist/' mutually coi/ V: miserating, reprove our Prime .Minuter {)' • giving England a wrong impression of O Jr "*' sunshine. "Rain-Soaked" is still searching/.''' sunshine and considers he bad less rain inr, '"' land. "Moist" .ays New Zealand's cC3£» a poor thing on the whole—bitterly cold ] on p drawn-out winters, short, fitful summere efo' - ' A stranger to our hospitable country w ou m I ' think from these wailings, that he had landed' 1 in the Antarctic regions. The first questW a logical reader asks is why, if yourtWfipP respondents know of a better 'ole, they hav'^ 1 ; not fled to it long ago rather than suff er fggs rigours of our raw climate. Apparently climate of England, disagreeing with ftwF they are now ready to quarrel with New Ilea' ' 1 land's. The second question is why they, have '• not quoted the facts that every school child'in New Zealand is acquainted with. I q UO^ ; ;.- figures from the latest Year Book, which ar<A' - self-explanatory. The figures are not selected from any particular year, but are the ayerasjej ■ over a number of years: \\ Hours of Bright * -v-.tfii Sunsliiue. Mean Tompcratar«: ■ Nerv Zealand— New 'Zealand— " Nelson ../... 2482 Auckland ..;. r,31 vC ' Napier ....... 2472 Napier .. 57 7 i A ' New*. Plymouth 2260 New Plymouth 572 Kotorua " '204-1 . Nelson ..... s**v Auckland .... 1054 l:ot.oni;i ..... 5i s Dunediu •• • • 1641 Dunedin . .... 507 fH'i: Invercargill . lotiS . lnvereargill . !coit) ! England — . . , Knglami— Kew Obseyvat'y 1177 Kc.v Observat'y 49.7. ;.1 Scotland— Scotland—Aberdeen .... 1356 . Aberdeen 45,3 vv ' ; Again, the number of days with rain ia miicli * higher at the British stations than in : Xer Zealand for rainfall totals of corresponding? " ' amount. These advantages of increased warmth'afld sunshine, combined with an • abundant 1 ' supply of water, account for the wort'derful ' fertility of our soil, and to a large degree * account for'the fact that New Zealand W the lowest death rate in the world (England is 11th on the list), and the lowest rate of- ■ infant mortality in the world (England is 9th 1 on the list). We appear to be holding our own despite "Motet's" "frail wooden'house*,, 1 tin roofs and thin walls." . The climate lias' not side-slipped. "Moist" has. LET IT POUR.