A DRY TIME.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1230, 12 September 1911, Page 2

A DRY TIME.

HEAT WAVES AND WATER SHORTAGE,

(By Sylvius.)

Is there a mctcorologic.il sympathy boi tween the hemispheres? If, as many believe, the general seasonal conditions of one hemisphere may he taken as soma sort of indication us to the conditions that arc to prevail during the corresponding season in the other it is not unintercsiing to draw attention to the extraordinary conditions prevalent the world over at the present time. The end of last summer and the autumn of the present year were probably the finest and driest experienced throughout the whole of tho Dominion lor a quarter of' a century or more, Even such wet places as upland Utago and the West Coast telt the searing eliecjs of drought and its bony lingers turned tho spongy black loam at tho back ot Oamaru into grey powder. Wairarapa, \\ aikato, and even Taranaki became dried up, and the cows that inhabit those parts nail perforce to follow suit. The result everyone knows-in tho south ilocks had to bo rushed either to the meat-works or to pasture lands which still had a vesturo ot green, butter went up to Is. Gd. per Jo. ilie Argentine and South Africa also had a very dry spell. Australia has fared better. It is to be seriously noted that tho phenomenally dry spell which New Zeaand experienced during the first' half of tho present year is being more than reilected 011 the other side of tho world, and even as we read of the Rhino being; nt its lowest for a hundred J cars and of factories at Bradford closing down owing to tho drought in England, tho observer (who affects a lovo ot lootball) will have noticed that the dust is flying on playing fields. Saturday woa a summers day in temperature ana aspect, .yet on that day a cabled report from London slates that tho temperature was Jfl degrees in tho shade—for onco a universal summer. There aro many who will care more than a straw for what this may portend. Aro we during tho summer to stem through a' i , V; aTO , ei » li!a r to that which has Quected tho whole of the Northern Hemis-phere-America, England, France, C.ermany, and Russia? It is not probable tlwt wo will .experience the boat on account of our geographical position, but the possibilities of another dry season are only too apparent on every hand. Tho latter half of our winter has been exceptionally free from those heavy soaking rains which aro characteristic ot the country. If the rains do not eomo the quickening is less vital, the growth less strong and prolific. In view of the circumstances, the dry summer and spring of last year, and tho ppor rains of late winter, thcro aro indications that New Zealand may experience a reflection of the phenomenally dry season which has caused such distress on the other side of tho globe. History has taught Australia (he lesson of conservation, and at Darren Jaeic and other places huge dams aro being 'constructed for the conservation of tho' waters of somo of the great rivers, whoso flow is apt to diminish to a trieklo or nothing at all in drought times,' While it is hardly possible to imagine a drought in New Zealand, as it is understood by Australians last year's dry time has made its impress on the thoughtful mind, and as with tho annual -clearance of many hundreds of thousands acres of bush— water-holding land —theso dry times are likely to be more frequent iu the future than in ilio past, the natural question occurs; Should man leave everything to Nature? Other countries have proved that good seasons can bo Assured by a rational system of water conservation. And lands iu the Alberta Country (Canada), Eastern California, Arizona, and Texas have been made to blossom as a garden, and to blossom every year—whilst wo in a natural garden attempt to make no provision against tho vagaries of Nature. Water to keep tho drv places green is a necessity, as will bo" appreciated when New Zealand is known as the Land of the Lost Forests. When man despoils Nature iu one way lie must assist nor in another.