CLIMATOLOGY

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 11783, 20 March 1924, Page 4

CLIMATOLOGY

SUNSHINE AND RAIN WHY NAPIER RECORDS ARB FAULTY. MR D. C. BATES INTERVIEWED. Attention has "been drawn to the fact that the record© of the rainfall in Napier during the recent storm varied very greatly in fact, by nearly as much as three inches One observer gave the rainfall in the first twenty-four hours as 7.65 inches, another as 8.69 inches, a third as over 10 inches, all in Napier. A “New Zealand Times” representative, therefore, called upon the Government Meteorologist (Mr D. C. Bates) yesterday, and asked* hi<n if he could explain these discrepancies. “I have just returned from a week-end holiday visit to Napier, and experienced the storm in question/* said Mr Bates in answer to our reporter's interrogation. “I inspected two of the rain-gauges in Napier. One was exposed on a post and had the least rainfall; and the other had been erected by tho Borough Council in a corner of the park where it was too sheltered. Those two rain-gauges, lam certain, did not record the proper amount of rainfall. The Government observer at Napier had been very much ■worried about the metereological station there, for the site of which he was not responsible. At the station they do not get quite all tho sunshine; and the instruments being packed into a small space for lack of suitable accommodation, the records are vitiated. NO RECORDS LAST YEAR.

“They * had no climatological records in Napier lwst year. Yet the Borough Council, the Thirty Thousand Club, and the general public are greatly interested in the matter, "because Napier is a city which boasts both of its sunshine and of it© sea breezee. In fact I saw this boast placed as a motto on some of the souvenirs and so on that they sell there. The Marist College, just within Napier, kept the records until the end of 1923; but since that no record has been kept in Napier till very recently, and ibe system has been a make-shift, Vhifb w*li either tn r«l proach or to ridicule, if the matter is not remedied. The responsibility for this rests with the Borough Council. If Napier is to be put to tho fore for its climate, as the local people are anxious should be done, tho meteorological observatory must not be put in any hole and corner. They have had offered to them the voluntarv services as observer of Mr C. I*. Thomas, a leading chemist in the city/' rfT "Yes," said our representative, i notice that in a recent interview in the Napier *Daily Telegraph' the Mr Thomas yon mention stated ‘there is no doubt that if the improvements are not effected out (meteorological! station will go. At the present time we are losing houTs of_ valuable sunshine through faulty location of the site, and the wind register is giving faulty readings through the fact that it is of insufficient, height/ " “While in Napier/' added Mr Bates, “I went into the auestion of the best site for the station with Mr Thomas, and I am of opinion that the best place for It would be immediately opposite the big entrance gates to tlie park, at a point In the centre of the roadway, just where it is at its broadest. That is where the authorities should erect a station worthy of thq town. The structure would ooßt approximately .£IOO, and should have a concrete base 18ft by 18ft and be fenced with iron rails to prevent the escapades of hoys. Mr Thomas holds that in the great race for seaside supremacy Napier is daily—hourly—losing ground by the inadequacy of heT own apparatus for recording her greatest attraction—her splendid climate; in the contest for winter tourist traffic Nanier iR going back and back, because her climate records are insufficient and incorrect." WELLINGTON’S POSITION NEW OBSERVATORY SITE WANTED. "How does Wellington stand in regard to these matters," asked our reporter. "We had an observatory for about 40 years on the site of the burial place of Mr Seddon. in the Sydney street cemetery," replied Mr Bates. "Then it was removed for a short time to near Mt. Cook barracks, but while I was away the military authorities moved it from the flat down on to the slope, and our records were upset. It was only there for ai short time, and we got faT more wind and less rain than we ought to have vot. Then we obtained from the City Council the present small enclosure at tho hack of Thorndon station, on the esplanade. But the Railway Department has secured the title to all this reclaimed land for the new station and yards, so it is probable that we shall be turned out of that, and some day, before very long, we shall have to look out for another site. Unfortunately, the present place is, rather exposed, and we have been troubled by trespassers a|nd by boys throwing stones at the instruments in, the same way as they do at electric light bulbs. Our records have been upset several times through this." CITY SITE WANTED. In answer to further questions, Mr Bates said, "I think the record obtained at the present observatory is a very fair average for the city—though, perhaps, the rainfall is slightly less than that recorded in other parts of the city. We shall have to get an alternative site in some open space, such as that on the Albert Park at Auckland, where the meteorological observatory is decently enclosed, and so far from being regarded as a detriment is considered as an attraction to the finest little park in the Dominion. We don’t want to go on to the heights for a site, because we should get greater winds there, which would not represent the ordinary conditions obtaining in the city. The city conditions are what we want to get; not the extraordinary records on the hill-tops. The late Mr W. H. Morton discussed the matter with me just before his last illness, but I have not had the time to attend to it since. The whole matter will have to be gone into carefully before a change is made; and, if possible, simultaneous observations . should be token to determine a 'constant' of the difference between the new site and the old one. "The meteorological records for Wellington date back to 1864, though many of the details of the earliest records have been lost. Auckland and Dunedin possess the earliest, best, and most continuous meteorological records in the Dominion. In Dunedin these records began in 1852 and in Auckland earlier still/'