Weather Prophet

NZ Truth, Issue 1175, 7 June 1928, Page 6

Weather Prophet

WHEN you come to think of it, the delectable hillside suburb of

Wadestown (Wellington) is a veritable Mecca for prominent civil servants and superannuitants.

Let's see . . . There's James Hislop and W. R. Morris; Dr. McLaurin and "Mona" Thomson; B. V. Pemberton and— but why go on? Let the lastnamed step forward for a moment.

B.V.P. is the assistant Government meteorologist, which is something of a mouthful and a tongue-twister. But if you imagine Pemberton to be an unbending, seA'ere type* of civil servant, well trussed up m pale pink tape, the refraction of your mind's

eye'is at fault,

He is just a suave, softspoken, well-set-up chap, who releases his department's two daily weather bulletins with clock-like precision. And you could just about set your own clock each day by watching him board the down-morning tram from "Wadestown and the up-night one.

Pemberton collects his <3ata from those numerous geographical points which you see tabulated each day outside the post office. Armed with these reports, he and his chief go into secret session with weird and wonderful gadgets — and their alchemy transmutes the whole into the daily forecast that sometimes brings joy and sometimes sorrow to the hearts of the "cocky" and the man-about-town.