THE WEATHER!

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 3, 5 January 1937, Page 6

THE WEATHER!

There is a local proverb in the Solomon Islands, "It rains here for nine months, and then the wet season commences." New Zealanders might well believe that the Solomon climate has slipped a little to the south-east and decided that this country was good enough for it. Last year's rainfall, 52 inches, was eight inches above the record, but even at that the official figures seem to be flattering, for only a mile or twfo away, in Remuera, a private and competent observer, Mr. F. Penn, records a total of five inches more. The gods of the weather might have been forgiven if they had let up a little when New Zealand was making holiday, but in vindictive mood they turned the tap on full hole, and muddied the springs of pleasure and happiness to a degree never before knoWn over so long a period in the "midsummer" holiday. Drenched and flooded out campers have said "good-bye to all that" and gone back home, fed up to the back teeth of water, water everywhere—when it was not mud. Everybody talks about the weather, Mark Twain reminded his readers, but nobody does anything about it. Hundreds of holidaymakers would have given half their possessions / for a chance to hit back, but "its dogged as does it," and the persistent rain has been a winner every time. We might well have, anticipated that when the attack was called, off on Friday we were in for a spell of what is known colloquially as decent weather. But the truce was short-lived; last night and this morning the floodgates were opened again, and those who had been game enough to brave the discomforts in high hope were subjected to a renewed bombardment. "Home, James, and don't spare the horses" was decision of many of the heroes of the mud, and motor camps that would normally be overflowing with visitors at this time of the, year are now deserted puddles. j