LESS SUNSHINE

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 38, 14 August 1917, Page 2

LESS SUNSHINE

(FSOH OUR OWN COSRSSPOHDEKT.)

SYDNEY, 9th August.

The statistjes of the past 30 years seem to show that the famous Australian sunshine is not being enjoyed in the southern part of Australia to the extent lmown by •an earlier generation. In Melbourne, during the fifteen years from 1902, >tiie average annual sunshine was 1857 hours, whereas in the; preceding fifteen years it waa 2047 hours. In other words, Melbourne now loses 189 hours of sunshine per year The mean temperature, however, was 58.5, as' compared' with 57.1 in the preceding 15 years. The falling-off in Adelaide has not been so marked, but nevertheless it is there. From 3887 to 1901, there were 2584 hours of sunshine per annum, and in -the 15 years since 1902, the annual average waa 2498 hours, an annual loss of 75 hours, or 12 minutes of sunshine per day. There is a difference of only; two-tenths of a degree in the mean temperature between the two periods of fifteen years, in favour of the 1887-1901 period.

The sale of the. Happy Valley Estate, Wellington, consisting of 5500 acres, which for some years past has been tha property of Messrs. Bowron Bros., Christcnurch. is reported by Messrs. H. H. Cook and Co.. of Wellington. The purchaser is Mr. J. D. Robertson, of-Fair-lie, Canterbury, and the amount paid waa in the vicinity of £50,000. Messrs. Cook und Co. have' also sold the Mount Whrinow sheep station, Canterbury, 8713 acres, to Mr. A. I). Kennedy, of Wellington, for.about £32,000. Two other properties of from 1260 acres to 2195 acres have idso recently changed hands through the same agency..