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Dunstan Times, Issue 3139, 16 October 1922, Page 8

Says a Homo paper : —The suggestion that the unpleasant weather wo have hocn experiencing i.s probably cine to sunspots is not so far-fetched as some people imagine. There is no doubt that the ultimate cause of our weather resides in the sun. and it is reasonable to believe that variations in the solar radiation are reflected by corresponding variations in terrestrial meteorology. Tt is not yet elcarly established, however, bow the mighty disturbances on the sun. of which sunspots are the visible evidence, affect its radiation, or how terrestrial factors modify the effect ol sunspots. Hut eminent solar physicists are working at the problem, and when that is solved it may he possible, by reference to the well-defined sunspot cycles, to predict our weather weeks ahead with a degree of accuracy at present- unattainable. The most serious menace to the coalition Government has just been discovered in the fact that No. 10 Downing street and its neighbor No. 11. though holding each other tip, are decayed at the foundation. Mr Lloyd George lives in No. 10 and Mr Austen Chamberlain. Government leader in tin* Commons, in No. 11. The ancient, gloomy Georgian residences in an alleyway alongside (ho Foreign Ofliee. though they have been the nerve centres ol the vagi Kmpire since the lime ol Pitt, are now said to rest on nothing hut mud and marsh and last year’s drought made the mud ('•rumble. During the Parliamentary recess the houses will he provided with suitable underpinning, and though nolliing so radical as modern, eomtortable residences for the Government heads are eon letnpla fed. modern concrete piling and filling will he used to keep i lie eoiiiliinalion together. It has been computed by geographers that M the sea were emptied of its water* and all the rivers of the earth were to pour their present Hoods into the vacant space, allowing nothing for evaporation. 10,0110 years would ho rec(nired to onng the water of the ocean 11 p t.o its present level.