SUNSHINE RECORDER.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXI, Issue 10923, 24 September 1932, Page 2

SUNSHINE RECORDER.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Your correspondent, Mr R. McKenzie, said In Thursday’s issue of your paper that he had hoped his correspondence had ended with bis last letter. That was in reference to the remarks “Monkey Gland’’ had made on the subject but not having seen or heard of “Monkey Gland” lately, I assume, not assert, that he has gone away back in the jungle or else gone to get that Gland removed again—I would like to meet him and shake hands with him all the same—so I will venture another letter on the subject, in answer to Mr McKenzie. Now, Mr McKenzie made a statement that Tauranga North gets more sunshine than Judea gets and I challenged that statement and asked Mr McKenzie to prove it. In his letter yesterday he assumes that, because Judea gets more rain than Tauranga North gets then Judea must get more cloud and less sunshrine than Tauranga North gets. That, Sir, is not proof. Just because he chooses to assume that, why should I accept it as official. I will point out to Mr McKenzie that one side of his street is subject to more rain than the other side and if his argument is correct then one side of the street gets more sunshine than the other side. Perhaps, Mr Editor, my best way of answering Mr McKenzie is by giving official figures which are not secret but his or anybody’s for the asking. I am not the official weather observer for the district, but I do take a keen interest in the weather, and my private records will bear investigation. But the following are not my figures. They are taken from the official records as published by the meteorological branch in Wellington. Those figures will prove, not assume, that ,in many instances the places with most rain get most sunshine and the places with the least rain get least sunshine. There are not many places in the Dominion which possess sunshine recorders, so I cannot quote places I would wish to. For instance, Central Otago is the driest place in the Dominion, but (I assume this time) it is by no means the sunniest, while Otira is the wettest and also assumed very sunny. However the places with sunshine recorders are as follows. lam giving the official measured records of both sunshine and rainfall, and number of days on which rain fell. Some of the towns where sunshine recorders are in use (for wlvnc year):— _ Hours Days Sun- Inches Rain Towns. shine. Rain. Fell Auckland .... 1979 59.27 213 Waihi 2033 127 ’JJ Napier 2286 36.34 158 Wellington .. • 2120 50.21 146 Nelson 2534 41.21 110 Hokitika 1981 H 6-19 Dunedin 1700 30.15 159 Invercargill . ■ 1286 43.71 -05 Ophir (Central) otago) .... — I?- 14 ;;; Tauranga .... 61-99 1 49

Now,' Mr McKenzie, if your assumption is correct, how do you account for the figures shown above. Your assumption would have Ophir, Central Otago, the sunniest place in Dominion, because it gets least rain. Then again, you would have Waihi the dullest place, because it gets least rain. Then 127 33 inches of rain on 152 days, but in reality it got 2,033 hours of sunshine for the same period. And Hokitika with 116.19 inches of rain on 206 days should also be one of the dullest places, but it got 1981 hours of sunshine. Invercargill, with 43.71 Inches of rain in 205 days only got 1286 hours of sunshine. Mr McKenzie, assumptions do not always count; but there is a total difference between assumption and assertion. At the public meeting you asserted that Tauranga North got more sunshine than Judea, but in your answer to my challenge you climb down to merely assume such is the case. Thanking you, Mr Editor, for taking up so much of your valuable space,—l am, etc., W. CARTER. Judea, Sept. 23, 1932.