METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 606, 15 September 1883, Page 6

METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.

The following amusing meteorological subleader appeared in the New Zealand He-aid of the 25th ultimo :—lf the meteorological observations daily issued by the Government are made the basis of any estimates as to the climate of New Zealand, the science of elimatology will get a little mixed. In the weather table posted daily in the corridor of the Telegraph Office, there is a record given, among other things, of the temperature of the day a 3 observed at a great number of Telegraph Offices throughout the colony. Curiosity was excited by the exceeding inclemency of the last two days, to see what was the actual temperature of those days as vouched for on official authority. No small astonishment was caused by the discovery that it was all a delu-ion about the cold—that in fact the weather was very genial on both those days at Auckland, especially on Thursday, which was quite a warm day in this city, according to the official register which marked in the shade Fahr. 62deg. The record of yesterday, though showing a slight fall, made the day also a very pleasant one, officially informing citizens that the temperature in the shade was Fahr. 56% which showed that the universal wearing of big coats, and the peculiarly blue and shrivelled appearance of citizens, were quife unwarranted. Still an unsatisfied curiosity prompted a c >mpari-on of the rec >rd of other thermometers, and it was found that on Thursday, when the Government instrument gave us balmy summer weather of 62', a thoroughly reliable thermometer that had never fibbed before, declared it to be 42‘ at Auckland. Another similar instrument recorded 43' at Parnell, and a similar thermometer gave 41' at Ontshunga. A similar testimony from the same three thermometers confronted the official assertion that the temperature yesterday was 56 ‘ in Auckland. Iu explanation of the discrepancy it is supposed that the Government meteorological observer carries his thermometer in his trousers’ rocket for facility of reference, and to save the necessity of going into places where there are draughts, and so possibly, either himself or the instrument, catching cold. This would be parallel to the matter discovered by Mr Swanson, at Wellington, who found that the Wind Guage had been placed in a sheltered place in the metropolis, to prevent its being blown down, as had occurred on the previous occasions from the anemometer having been injudiciously placed in an exposed situation on the top of a hill. If the hypothesis about the Government thermometer is correct, we think that it should be so stated, and the column should b • headed “ Therm, in pocket,” instead of “Therm, in shade.” At all events the matter is worth looking into by whosoever has charge of the weather, for. it produces an unpleasant fesliog when people are shivering with cold, to be told by Government authority that it is a chaimirig. summer day with the official thermometer at 32’.