METEOROLOGY

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 256, 24 July 1924, Page 3

METEOROLOGY

A POORLY EQUIPPED GOVERNMENT OFFICE

An interesting address on the growth of tho New Zealand Government Meteorological Office was given to the Chamber of Commerce members at the luncheon yesterday by Mr. D. C. Bates, Government Meteorologist. Mr. H. D. Bennett presided, and ■ introducing the speaker, regretted the poor equipment of such an important Department to seamen and farmers. “Tho work of this office is not, assisted by the Government in the way it should be,” said Mr. Bennett. “T happen to know that the money to be spent on equipment for , the year is less than £lO. Lt is an important office, and a good deal more notice should be taken of it by the Government than is foreshadowed in the Estimates.” Mr. Bates spoke of tho importance of records of the climate, and the value of forecasts to men on the land. Our climate was our chief asset, and our records were copied into all the great almanacs and geographies of the world. He gave an instance of a fault discovered in the housing of instruments in Auckland too near a tile roof, with the result that the Auckland readings of heat and cold were exaggerated. The instruments were. moved, after a time to a proper position. Not many months afterwards a query came from Berlin observatory .as to the cause of the marked change in the, Auckland readings. That showed how importantly such records were viewed in other parts of the world. Ho traced the growth of the meterorological recording 'system in New Zealand from 1857, and told how the important records were lost by shipwreck in transport from Auckland to Wellington, and by fire here. He described the system by which records from all parts of New Zealand were collected, and the statistics compiled. Some people thought tho Meterorological Office existed merely as a source of tips of fine weather - to holidaymakers and week-enders, but while this work was of some interest, it was not permanent like the records of actual rainfall. Since the war ships had ceased to send in reports of the weather. “During the war,” said Mr. Bates, I “tho chief difficulty was the lack of ; instruments, tho main reason for which was the way supplies were scattcied around by the British Government. The air force, the navy, the artillery, and the army, each had their own observatories, besides others, and all these worked independently of each other, whero better service could have been obtained by a fully-equipped and staffed central observatory. M ben tho Americans came over, and with them a tremendous number of enthusiastic meteorologists, all of whom proved a drain on sources of instrument supply I visited several of these observatories while in England after the war, many of them idle, and secured the offer ot apparatus badly wanted here. There | was talk of sending 100 aeroplanes here, and I tried to have the value of one aeroplane spent in mcteorologi. _i instruments for the Dominion. In the end 35 aeroplanes were secured, but no instruments. Chile and Brazil got in a head of us for some of them. Our office nevertheless does valuable work. 1 could give you instances where the lives of hundreds of sheep and lambs have been saved by timely warnings from the Meteorological Office.”