Manawatu Daily Times Controlling the Weather

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7120, 18 January 1930, Page 6

Manawatu Daily Times Controlling the Weather

In England, on the Continent and here in New Zealand, the subject of the weather has lately been more than polite conversation. In faet, all the comments one hears on the vagaries of our present “summer” are distinctly impolite. Rains and floods, though none fortunately of a disastrous nature, have been the Dominion’s portion for many weeks now, Britain has experienced the most severe gales on record and the English Channel has been whipped into almost unprecedented turbulence. Mention of the weather brings one to consideration of the science of meteorology, which it is now realised, is of the utmost importance, not only to navigators but to all cultivators and others whose daily routine takes them out of doors. To bring weather anticipations to the highest possible pitch of exactitude, thoroughly trained scientists with efficient equips ment are necessary and the extension of this service is being encouraged in many countries the world over.

the vagaries of the weather. Their first effort was to gain some measure of physical protection, which increased as construction practices improved. Then followed an effort to anticipate weather changes as observation proved that conditions varied according to an ordered scheme, rather than because of the whims of some mythical individual. The first predictions were little more than guesses, but as meteorological science developed they gained in accuracy and scope. Research in the “weather factories” of the Arctic and the Antarctic is expected to add greatly to meteorological knowledge and to permit longer advance forecasts than now are possible.

The ultimate development of completely accurate weather forecasting may reasonably be anticipated. With this in view, the next logical step would be that of exerting at least some measure of control over the elements. Certainly this is no more fantastic than the idea of weather forecasting would have been to the navigator of 300 years ago. It is difficult to imagine what the Phoenician sailors would have thought of the idea of complete weather reports covering the Atlantic—a vast ocean the extent of which they had not even guessed.

Despite the fact that since the earliest times there have been efforts to plumb the storm’s cauldron, the science of meteorology has developed only within the last century and a-half, but the complete knowledge that is rapidly being gained will one day, it is reasonable to suppose, be applied, in some measure, to the direction and control of the elements.

John Harold Titlow, waterside worker, fell down a hold on Thursday afternoon on the overseas steamer Turakina, berthed at Wellington, and received severe injuries to his back from which he died in hospital early yesterday morning. Deceaed lived at Lower Hutt. At the inquest yesterday at Waimate on John Joseph Campbell, an old age pensioner, residing at Studholme Junction, a verdict was returned that deceased met his death by drowning. The evidence showed he had been drinking heavily and tied his hands together and plunged into tho creek with the object of taking his life. There will bo much of interest for cricket enthusiasts at the continuation of the M.C.C. v. Manawatu match at the Sportsground to-day. With only seven wickets down, the Englishmen have still to produce Gilligan (the captain) and Dawson, the usual opening batsmen, and Woolley is still batting in fine style. Public street clocks in Berlin contain in their pedestals an ambulance department where a stretcher and first-

It is not necessary to go beyond the period of written history to find a time when men were veritable pawns before

The Ulimaroa left Sydney at 10 o'clock yesterday for Auckland. The question of the-high speed of cream lorries and other heavy vehicles was the cause of much discussion at the Manawatu County Council's monthly meeting last night. In one instance, three lorries were stated to pass down one road, with only one cream supplier on it. Speeds up to 45 m.p.h. were quoted, and the discussion had become involved when the chairman called the meeting to order and carried on with the agenda form, after requesting a report from the council's traffic inspector. In. the course of the presentation of trophies at the conclusion of the recent tennis tournament at New Plymouth, it was noticeable that the majority of the men in the large crowd that had assembled to hear the addresses and witness the presentation had removed their pipes from their mouths, probably out of respect for the ladies present. In marked contrast, however, says the Taranaki Nows, was the attitude of two young women of modern, ideas who sat well to the front nonchalantly puffing away; at their cigarettes^