MR. SAXBY'S PREDICTION.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1088, 1 October 1869, Page 1

MR. SAXBY'S PREDICTION.

The following letter of Mr. Saxby's appears in a London contemporary :—

Sib,— Some months since you kindly admitted into your respected columns a letter from me as to coming weather in October and November next. My warning has, like a snowball, in rolling so far as the antipodes, entirely lost its original shape, and, indeed, it ought to be impossible to trace any reasonable connection between it and tna absurd paragraph which (as copied below) appears in the xTawke's Bay (New Zealand) Hebald, of 26th March last, just received by me. I should have been silent were it not that a few months since a gentleman of education in England (a man of ability in his profession) wrote to ask me to acquaint nim (for a public purpose) as to the exact rise of tide which I expected on the 6th of October next. Need I say that such an opinion cannot be formed by mortal man with any propriety. I really must ask the great favour of your inserting this letter, for I never assume to predict anything beyond extraordinary atmospheric disturbances; and I still declare that I have long done so with infallible accuracy. My neighbours in Sent will remember my firm warnings as to the weather to have been expected on Easter Monday last; nor will the, inhabitants of Dover forget them. The unwarrantable use of my name occasionally in New Zealand and Australia is calculated not only to damage me ; but it appears has become a dangerous inconvenience to the credulous multitudewhoseverypardonable ignorance of meteorology exposes them to alarm. Allow me, sir, to again explain that when I speak of "destructive inundations" as likely to occur on or about the 6th October next, I only allude to extraordinary • high tides' and such 'inundations* as may possibly in some localities be the result of excessive rains, or storms— in fact, from extreme atmospheric disturbances. I have not even in my lists made any mention of 17th March, and never published or sanctioned the publication of any almanacs or books of any kind in Australia, or other foreign places, which have so fraudulently borne my name. May I add that since the weather is acknowledged to have been thus far so unseasonable this summer, it is precisely what I have for months warned Kentish farmers and others, my neighbors, against upon every opportunity, expecting a "disturbed summer like that of 1860. Farmers will do well to expect especiallyunsettled weather about July 9 to 12, and August 7 1© 11, and September 6to 10. "They and the public will be able, from watching those periods, to estimate beforehand what oredence may be given to my special and earnest warnings against October sto 7, and November Ito 9. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, S. M. Saxby. Eaversham, June 10. (Extract from the Hawke's Bay (New Zealand) Hebaid, of March 26, 1869. "The Coming Deluge.—According to the Evening Star, a number of silly people in Hokitika have made preparations for removing to the gaol nill for safety, in anticipation of a huge tidal wave, which, it is said, Mr. Saxby has predicted, will, on the 17th instant, submerge all the Middle Island of New; Zealand to within twelve feet of the highest peak of Mount Cook."