CLEMENT L. WRAGGE, F.R.G.S., F.R. MET. SOC., F.R.C.I., &c.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18169, 15 August 1922, Page 9

CLEMENT L. WRAGGE, F.R.G.S., F.R. MET. SOC., F.R.C.1., &c.

SOME REMINISCENCES OF AN EVENTFUL LIFE.

I am an "only child," at Stourbridge, England," in 1852, lost both parents in infancy and was nurtured by a beloved grandmother at the family home at Oakamoor, in the romantic and lovely Churnet Valley, North Staffordshire. Granny taught me the first' principles of Astronomy, Geography, and the natural Sciences; and being evidently born that way, long before I was twelve I revelled ill tho stars and wondered if the Jewish God was really THE God of an endless Universe. As to Geography, no boy could toucb me. and Granny expounded tho mysteries of the "weather glass." I rejoiced in Nature; and the surroundings of the Crystal Palace, near where I went to school, fostered my tastes. Evolution progressed! I finished classics with the Vicar of Launceston, romantic Cornwall compelling a love of Nature still more. I studied navigation at Janet Taylor's Nautical Academy in London, and went to sea for experience. I have travelled in all the six divisions of the world. I founded the Wragge Museum of Ethnography, Geology, and Natural History at Stafford, England, and. gave it to the country. Worked three meteorological stations in North Staffordshire, and then founded the Ben Nevis Observatory, climbing the mountain 4406 ft. daily in all weathers. This got me.'the Gold Medal. I joined the South Australian Survey and became devoted to science with physical astronomy and meteorology as very special lines, and started the Torrens Observatory, Adelaide, and another on Mount Lofty, S.A., and.later, on Mount Wellington, in Tasmania. Then I became Government Meteorologist of Queensland, and travelled in duty all over that State. I attended International Conferences and inaugurated the Observatories in the French Colony of New Caledonia, aVi tho famous Observatory on the top «.f Mount Kosciusko in New South Wales. One cf my main works was the issue of- weather forecasts for all Australia. Since 1903 my beloved sciences have maintained me, and given me a home in God's Own Country. All that time I have lectured on tho marvels of the Universe, in England, also all oyer India, Ceylon, Australia, Fiji, Tahiti, Tonga, and New Zealand, doing all I could to lif* mankind to a nobler conception of God, and what the Eternal Universe really means. Radium is one of my very special subjects, and I have splendid specimens. I have published the "Romance of the South Seas'' and other works. In constitution I am strong and wiry as a steel rope, but in South Australia a few years ago I suffered temporarily from, an awful backache and kidney trouble. Something said "Try Doan's Pills." I did so, with-the result that in a little while I was cured, and have not been bothered with the agony since. This is a simple fact. I care not what the medicine is composed of, suffice it to say that it is a boon to mankind, and I verv cordially and conscientiously recommend" it. And now in my 69th year I have my own Weather Bureau, which serves all Australasia, and take delight in working with iron bar, pick and shovel, in my beautiful tropical gardens, which I made out of a desert in my new home at "Waiata," Birkenhead, Auckland, N.Z., and which are open to everybody. So much for "Doan," whoever he "may be, and my best thanks to him. —ASVt.