FORETELLING THE WEATHER.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIV, Issue 3514, 20 October 1868, Page 4

FORETELLING THE WEATHER.

In these days of earthquake waves, high gales, extraordinary tides, and shocks of earthquake, anyone who foretells, or pretends to foretell, the weather, is likely to gain some attention. It would bo seen from a paragraph in yesterday's paper that Saxby said that there would be " special atmospheric disturbance all over the world," from October 13 to October 19. Not only the atmosphere, but, the earth has been disturbed in Auckland ; but of course we have still to hear from the rest of the world, and till then we must defer our declaration of faith in Saxby. Mr. G. W. Groves, who dates from the Crovrn Lands Office, Melbourne, sends us an almanack, on which, as in Zadkiel and Moore, each day has its weather chalked out for it, As this is a scientific age, however, Mr. Groves bases his prognostications on what he calls "magnetic principles," and then proceeds to explain these at a length which prevents us inserting them in full, and, as we cannot understand them, we do not venture to summarise. Admiral Fitzroy, who devoted so much attention to meteorology, tried nothing so bold as this. He found a storm travelling in a certain direction, and telegraphed to certain places in anticipation of it. But even this, which might have been thought safe enough, was found so j often to mislead that it was given up, and the weather in England is now allowed to take its course. In Australia and New Zealand we have still to learn humility, and there are many who put faith in such predictions as those of Saxby and Groves. We give the following passage from the letter which accompanies Mr. Grove's weather tables :—: — " But before men can benefit by such knowledge, they must first be brought to have faith in the predictions, and, in order to establish this faith, it will be necessary for me to prove, by actual experience, the possibility of foretelling the weather from well-known established laws, that are as uniform in their operations as the laws of gravitation. The laws that govern the atmospheric changes, as indeed all the laws by which the great Creator carries on the operations of nature, are beautiful in their simplicity." We may say at once that we utterly despair of ever getting any benefit from Mr. Groves's " predictions," as it will be difficult for us to get up the " faith " which we are told is essential. We may, however, give the weather for the next three days :— 2O. Fresh, inclined to rain. 21. Moderate and fine. 22. Fresh, inclined to rain.

The cattle show of the New Zealand Agricultural Society will be held to-day at the Kemuera Yards. A publio meeting will be held at the Lake School at noon on Friday next, for the purpose of nominating trustees for the Highway District. A public meeting was held in the Mechanics' Institute yesterday, to consider the best means of relieving the sick and destitute. A report will be found elsewhere. A seaman, belongiog to the ship 'Excelsior,' lying alongside the Queen-street Wharf, was given into oustudy yesterday afternoon for committing an assault on Captain Inglis. A benefit in aid of the Yon Tempsky Fund took place at the Polytechnic Hall, Dunedm, on the evening of the 7th. It was well patronised, and the entertainment went off successfully. A meeting was held at Wellington on the 12th for the purpose of adopting a farewell address to Bishop Abrahams, who is about to visit England in company with Bishop Selwyn. An address was adopted, on the motion of Mr. Justice Johnston. One has also been sent up from the inhabitants of the parith of St. Paul's. It will be seen from an advertisement in our columns that Mr. Robert Graham is about to sell the whole of his fl >clt of long-woolled sheep, consisting of 500 ewes, 500 lambs, and 60 rams. The flock, which is now on the farm at Wamku, is known to be of a very excellent description. The paddle-steamer 'Clyde,' Captain Ellis, left Shortland on Sundiiy on an excursion to Obinemuri, with a goodly number of visitors. The chief Taipsiri and a number of Shortl-tnd ueonje availed themselves or tuis opportunity of paying a visit to the Upper Thames district. — Thames Advertiser. A man named John McOornmk was brought up in the ' JRoyal Alfred. ' last night, in custody of constable Givynu, of tbe Graham's Town police, Thames, to undeigo a sentence of three months' imprisonment with hard labour, for larceny committed at Sbortland. j At tbe_ Police Court, yesterday, several drunkards were punished in the usual manner. A stowaway on board the s.s. 'Ahuriri,' from Wellington, jvas fined £5 and costs, together with the amount of passage money. Three women were brought up on remand, charged with stealing the sum of £30 from one Thomas Smith The case not beiug substantiated, th«y were dismissed ; but were afterwards oharged under the Vagrant Act, and two of them were committed for three months. The youngest of the three was remanded for a few days. A case of assault, in which the parties did not appear, wai dismissed ; and a warrant was issued against a Maori woman for an assault upon a M aori girl. A report of the proceedings will be found elie where. We are informed by Mr. Smart that the 'Hero' will not sail till five o'clock instead of three, as has been previously stated. The ' Siaiu'and other vessels in harbour will hoist their colours as a mark of reBpscfc to the truly great mau who is to leave our shores this day, and whose character and labours will ever be a treasure of good lo New Zealand. The sailing of the vessel having been delayed, we presume that the closing of the mail will also be delayed, till three o'clock. The band of the Royal Triab, under the direction of Mr. Quinn, will perform on Government House lawn this afternoon, at 3 o'clock (weather permitting). The following is the programme : — March : oveiture, " Crown Diamonds," Auber ; waltz, *• Morgenblatter," Strauss; selection, " Traucredi," Kos-iui; quadrille, "Clanbe>," Glover; galop, "Kifle," Farmer ; '• God save the Queen." Lrst evening the Eev. T. Hamer delivered a highly instructive and interesting lecture on astronomy, in the Newton Hall, before a large and utteutivo audience. The rev. gentleman impressed upon the younger portion of his hearers the necessity of being fully acquainted with the different movements of the heavenly bodies, and exhibited several diagrams to illustrate his remr.rks. The lecture was attentively listened to throughout. The Bishop of Capetown has published a circular in which he stated that the consecration of j Mr. Macrorie will take plaoe as soon as possible, Convocation having declared that the Church as a spiritual body may accept the sentence pronounced against Dr. Colenso, and the Government having admitted that an orthodox bishop for "the faithful clergy and laity in Natal" may be consecrated. There is still some difficulty, however, about funds. Dr. Gray says that, seeing no one else was prepared to do so, he has made himself responsible to the new Bishop for a salary of £600 a year as long as it may be needed. Towards this he has received promises to the extent of £600 a-year for five years, half of which has already been paid, An income, however, may be needed for 10 or 15 years, and he is sure it will be felt that it is "neither reasonable nor riaht that one bishop in Africa should remain responsible for the income of another." Dr. Gray has accordingly bel i a meeting with a few members of Convocation, and they have unanimously come to the conclusion that it is desirable to form an association to collect funds ■o that tha required sum may be made up. The association would also "aid such other works in South Africa as may commeud^themselves to the sympathy of the Church.'' A correspondent of the Sacramento Union, writing from Camp Wallen, (A.T.), June Ist, says:— " I would like to give you an idea of how the Jndian business is progressing in this Terrtory. In the first place, Brevet Bngader-Geueral Crittenden took three companies of cavalry, bes ; des a host of packers adventurers, &c, and crossed , the Kio Gila last April, but failed in killing a single red ; and what started the fecout at first was that the Indians attacked and killed one or two herders between Tucson and Pacbeco, or Point of Mountain, as it is usually called, and ran off a herd of some 500 head of beef cattle coming from Texas, and going to California. And now again on the 13th of May, a party of about ten Indians captured 70 mules between Apache Pass (or, as it is sometimes called, Fort Bowie), and Fort Goodwin (A.T.), but the mail stage , was goiug out and met and captured most of the •took back again ; bub it (appears that ta» mail

carriers, two in number, managed to kill one of the Indians at the same time. But on the 26th the Apaches had everything matured for revenge upon the mail carriers or upon anything that should happen to come that way. JThey w ere therefore lying in ambush about 12 miles from the post of Fort Bo wie.a waiting the approach of the mail • and it appears that two soldiers were along as escort, malting a party of four, all told. One of the men was killed at the first fire, it seems, aud was found afterwards about a thousand yards off the road, scalped and terribly disfigured. This man's name was J. Brownloy, and had been formerly a resident of San Francisco. The other three managed to turn the stage around, with a view of coming to the post, but the Indians soon headed them off and took the three men prisoners. On the 29th a party of thirty men started out on the trail, and about ten miles off in the mountains they found the bodies of the two soldiers, with their hands tied beLi d their ba^ks, where they had|been tortured to deatn most fearfully, having had lance 3 run through them and arrows beside lo complete the scene. The other man, a citizen, was not found, and U supposed to have been taken to some other raucbero and either burnt or tortured to death in some revoking manner. Such are the common occurrences of the times here, and which have existed for the pmt year. It had never existed before the preseat administration in this territory ; and there have been more depredations committed from June, 1867,, to June, 1868, than ever known by the oldest inhabitant sunce the place was first set Jed by white men. -Formerly, places that u.ed to be considered safe at any time, are now places where the Indiana have killed no leas than two Americans, besides wounding two or three Mexicaus, all within eight mouths' time. Pomment is unnecessary ; but where is this state of things to cad ? " The Sacramento Union, after stating that the wheat harvest of this year is later than usual, makes the following remarks : — "The ruling rates for new wheat are still above 2 dollars per cental. They will probably drop a little lower under the influence of the first rush for market after harvest — say about the fiist of August, when many who • must' realise w\ll throw their crops forward, and have to take what they can get. To help the downward tendency, there will probably be several thousand tons of old wheat, kept back by speculators for that purpose, flung upon the mark ft, bo that they may manage lo frighten producers, and obtain large purchases at much less than they are worth. The farmers who can hold on to their crops need not fear to stand out for 2 dollars per 1001b. here, as long as wheat is quoted at 13s. 6d. in Liverpool. Shipping is not going to be so scarce as speculators pretend, nor freights any higher than last year, nor so high. There are 130 ships en route from European ports now for San Francisco. Their Aggregate tonnage will probably handle a. quarter pf our surplus at a single voyage, and most of them will be due by early autumn. There will be plenty more during the winter and spring to take away all we shall have to spare. Such a market as ours, when once well known, never lacks for t'mnace., The number of sailing vessels on the way to San Francisco from Eastern or foreign ports is about 130 — the same number as last year at this time, and 50 more than in the same month of the previous year. The demand for tonnage for railroad iron from the Atlantic seaboard makes it probable that American tonnage will continue to be despatched to this, place with unusual frequency until the demands ' of the railroads are nearly supplied. According' to Elliotts table*, while wheat is quoted at 2 dollars 15 cents a cental in San Francisco, it can be laid down in Liverpool, after paying full charges on both sides, and a freight of £2 15s a ton, at a cost of 12s. per cental From these facts farmers can judge for themselves what the prospects are of wheat falling here while the foreign quotations remain the same as now. On the other hand, it is worth c onsidering how much more a man can do with his capital who realizes during the autumn, and turns what otherwise would be lying dormant to good accouut in preparing for extended operations next year."