TELEGRAMS.

Thames Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 10380, 6 December 1912, Page 8

TELEGRAMS.

WEATHER PROSPECTS,

A CHAT WITH THE! GOVERNMENT MEiTEOKOLOIGIST.

'THE! GOOD' OLD DAYS.".

(Pfer Press Association.)

WEHMGTON, Dec. ij. The Tfi'etchedniess of spring has multiplied! prophets of pessimistic tone, but, Mr Biates, the dominion busy with hi& daily ■warnings of storms and 'depressions,' maintains a cheerful outlook. A' oon-espondemb discussed the' prospects with him and asked if Hie abnormal spring presaged a bad summer. "The beginning of last year was even worse than this,," said Mr Bates. "There hiave been no really bad storms this season, and I ami not going to subscribe to the doctrine that "a bad springl presages a bad summer. There ia nothing to go on in pi'edioting so far ahead." CYCLE THEORIES.

•'Not even the cycle theory of che seasons?" suggested the reporter. "No; I have no cycle on -which I can rely. There are such great differences in the weather mi New Zealand that I doubt if a reliable cycle will ever be discovered. Investigation of 3-year, 11-year, 33 and 65-year periods have beem< undertaken, but ihe results do not appear reliable. Oiie year the rainfall will be mostly on' the East Coast, nlext year on 'hie West Coast, of the North Island: then on the West Coast of the South Island. We have sixty years of continuous records from Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin, but they do nlot demonstrate the existence of re-gularly-recurring phases of the wea- \ ther." ;

"Is the climate of New Zealand tmy worse to-day than when the records were first systematically taken "

"There is nothing to suggest that the old dn.ys were good," answered Mr Bate®, cheerfully. "We get. a good rainfall in New Zealand, but not more than fJvo country enjoyed sixty years ago. though the water runs off much quicker now, because so many forests hare been cleared. Then the rivers dry up quicker than of old. because the .trees and leaves are nut on; the slopes to retain the moisture." ' ICEBEtRIGS AND TTCiRIEILiEISS: The meteorologist was now fairly goingl ou his favourite theme. 'A good mlany suggest that icebergs drifting up from the Antarctic caused excessive rainfall, but my opinion is the iceberg's and the excessive rainfall have a commom cause, and that icebergs themselves ■do not. in-, fluence the position. Then another section of the community blames wireless telegraphy, but there again I do not agree. Wireless was credited ■with causing: a drought in Einglanjd a few years ago, The following summer there was too nimch rain, and agnin wireless was Warned. People could lot hare been ritjljit on both occasions. The vibrations of the ether, rapid as light, do not appear to influence the weather iti the slightest.

"We have certainly had one of the most unsettled seasons for the last twenty or thirty years," added Mi* Bates, cominjr back "to the origina!l

question, "but that'does not necessarily presntro n bad sununev.'' .