The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, JULY 26, 1934. VAGARIES OF THE WEATHER.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19861, 26 July 1934, Page 8

The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, JULY 26, 1934. VAGARIES OF THE WEATHER.

One of the most bewildering problems confronting scientists today is the vagaries of the climatic conditions prevailing in many countries. In various parts of New Zealand very low readings of the thermometer have been recorded, and generally speaking the weather has been very cold. In the northern hemisphere, however, violent storms, prolonged droughty, devastating dust blizzards, and record high temperatures are reported. Hundreds of deaths have occurred in the United States, and in many parts of the great Republic, the highest temperatures for all time have been recorded. Terrific storms have swept parts of England, accompanied by vivid lightning, which lias caused much damage to property. So staggering is the loss suffered by the Polish nation in one of the most devastating convulsions of Nature known in the history of that country, that the British Government has felt impelled to send messages of sympathy with the people of Poland who have suffered such heavy loss of life in the terrible flood disaster now visiting that country. In the Antarctic, the coldest winter on record is being experienced by Rear-Admiral Byrd who is keeping a lonely vigil in the advance weather post, while unusually fierce storms have circled the great mountain range that holds guard over Tibet, where an intrepid band of. German climbers has met with disaster. But there is a cold time coming in the next 10,000 years or so, according to Dr. G. C. Simpson, the Director of the Meteorological Office. Deserting the rule which he enforces in his own office that weather forecasts must be limited to the next forty-eight hours, Dr. Simpson told the Royal Meteorological Society what it would be like on the earth hundreds of thousands of years ahead. He-based his prophecies on a theory of solar changes which he has lately shown to be confirmed by the story of world weather in the period covered by the last four ice ages. A complete cycle of change takes anything from 100,000 to 1,000,000 years, and the difference in radiation represents a range of about 10 per cent. “We are at present approaching a minimum,” he said, “and our climate is cold and dry. All the evidence points to the conclusion that the earth will continue to get colder and drier for a long time yet.” But even after the sun’s radiation has begun to increase again, he explained, Europe would have to go through another ice age before we once again got really warm weather, with temperatures from sdeg. to lOdeg. higher than they are now, and, on doubt, another influx of semi-tropical life. An increase in solar radiation would mean more difference in temperature between the equator and the poles. There would, therefore, be stronger winds, jnore cloud, and more precipitation. “At first,” he explained, “the increased precipitation would result in greater accumulation of snow, and the increased cloud would prevent summer melting. The polar ice caps and the ice fields on mountains would extend, spreading into lower latitudes and down to lower heights.” That would bring the next ice age to its maximum tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of years hence. Then, as the sun’s radiation further increased in strength, the ice would be first checked in its advance and finally melted. There would follow the warmest time of all, “a warm, wet, inter-glacial period,” with half as much cloud again as there is now. Next, as the sun’s radiation began to decrease in intensity again, the same set of changes would be reversed, and after another ice age we should drift slowly back to the status quo. We should have had two ice ages in the course of the one solar cycle, while in the tropics there would have been a single wet period corresponding with the warm, wet, inter-glacial period nearer the poles. For the moment, ' the average earthdweller is not very much concerned about the climatic conditions that are likely to prevail ten thousand years hence; but there are feelings prevalent in many lands that climates are undergoing drastic changes, bringing greater extremes of temperatures, and in some countries less settled weather, even in the summer, with an apparent lengthening of the colder period of the year. THE GAME OF CRICKET. Quite a lot of unnecessary sympathy is being offered the Australians because rain caused the abandonment of the fourth Test when victory seemed well within the grasp of the seekers after the mythical ashes of cricket. It is being said that rain robbed the Australians of victory. It is doubtful if the games are still being played in the old generous spirit of cricket. For example, the demand by the Australian captain that play should be resumed at five o’clock on a water-logged wicket, savours rather of that “win-at-all-cost” attitude which has convinced quite a large number of followers of the game that Test match cricket is not tending to preserve the highest traditions of the game. It is interesting to mention that a full hour after the

Australian captain requested that the game should be resumed, the umpires decided on the abandonment of the match. The Australians ought to ask themselves if in the over-zealous regard for batting and bowling averages, and the worship of the fetish for record-breaking performances with bat and ball, some explanation can he found for the failure of the Australians to push home the overwhelming advantage held by them at the close of the second days’ play. The decision of the Australian captain to continue batting to afford Bradman an opportunity to eclipse his earlier record score in Test cricket, not only demonstrated the manifest weakness of the Australians in coping with fast bowling, but indirectly contributed substantially to the failure of the visitors to secure a well-merited victory. The Australians will no doubt bemoan their ill-luck, but a. little well directed introspection, should reveal the real cause of a loss of a commanding advantage. Cricketers in England who know Australian methods, talk of the game as something different from traditional English cricket. “It is not a game now,” says one English commentator, “it’s a battle and very hard work at that.” This different atmosphere has come to be accepted ns inevitable by the authorities in England, and plans are laid in anticipation of every series of Test matches, to beat the Aus tralians at their own game. It was the very relentlessness of Jardine’s character which in the end confirmed his choice, as captain instead of Chapman. “The great thing about Douglas,” said one cricket commentator, quoting one of the selectors, “is that he will give nothing away.” This same spirit prevailed at Leeds when the Australian captain demanded the resumption of the match on a wdeket quite unfit for cricket. The reasons for this change of spirit in cricket are not easily distinguishable. In general it may be due to the intense specialisation of the present day. The game lias become too highly systemised. The life, the cheerful carefree element, has gone out of the game. The books which have been written on the Australian tours of England and the return visits of the M.C.C. teams, all emphasise the “friendly spirit,” “sporting atmosphere,” and “good fellowship” which have characterised the play. To the uninitiated reader cricket appears as a “great” bond cementing the ties which exist between the Mother Country and her distant Dominion. But the atmosphere has become vitiated by the deadly determination of both sides to win at all costs, within the rules. Play-to-a-finish cricket (some of the leading commentators insist), and the very great and apparently increasing importance attached to the game by the public has changed the attitude of player to player. “Big” cricket has become not merely a business, hut a question of national prestige. Manifestly the air must be cleared. Either Test matches must abandon any pretence of being friendly encounters, and each side must train a team of professional gladiators whose lifework is to win, or both countries must get back to the old idea of cricket as a recreation in which sportsmanship is not a mere matter of rules but of mutual enjoyment of the players. No game, however great the public interest, is a matter of international importance, and “big” cricket must either preserve its old traditions or cease to have any interest for those who love the game for its own sake.