AID TO FLYERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 247, 17 October 1936, Page 26

AID TO FLYERS.

weather reports. AN EVER-INCREASING WORK. TEANS-XASMAN SCHEME." (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. The fact that a scheme for reporting 011 weather conditions had been drawn up in preparation for the trans-Tasman and trans-Pacific air services by the meteorological branch of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, was announced by the secretary of the council of that body, Dr. E. Marsden, in the Department's annual report. The report was presented to Parliament yesterday. The inauguration of regular commercial air services in New Zealand, with the resulting demand for frequent reports of weather conditions along air routes and forecasts of future developments, had led to somewhat revolutionary changes in the organisation of the meteorological office, the report stated. A considerable increase of staff and an extension of the system of observation and reporting of the weather had been involved. At present no service was given on Sundays or holidays, but the matter was under consideration. "It will naturally take some years for the new and untrained personnel to reach their maximum efficiency, but ; those responsible are to be congratulated 011 having supplied the pilots of Cook Strait Airways and Union Airways with the necessary information prior to each flight since the inception of their services. This would not have been possible without the co-operation of the Controller of Civil Aviation, the Post and Telegraph Department, and the Marine Department. The cost of the service has been met by the Defence Department." During the year the director, Dr. E. Kidson, had visited Europe in order to attend the conference of directors of meteorological services at Warsaw in September, and the conference of Empire meteorologists in London in August. His report illustrated the groat value of such conferences and of periodical visits by senior officers to the main centres of civilisation.

"The director also draws attention to the necessity of sustained research into meteorological problems, which in most cases require for their solution a great accumulation of data covering a considerable period of years," the report added. "Generally, this can only be obtained from an official service with its organised network of observatories and observing stations. Some valuable researches have been carried out by persons who are not, and have never been associated with official meteorological services, but they usually refer to more or less isolated phenomena, and are generally concerned with the purely physical aspects of the subject."