STATE-WIDE SERVICE

Waipa Post, Volume 42, Issue 3270, 10 March 1931, Page 3

STATE-WIDE SERVICE

RETIREMENT OF AUSTRALIA'S FIRST METEOROLOGIST. / When Mr H. A. Hunt, Commonwealth meteorologist, retired from the service (says the Melbourne Herald) a regretful staff presented him with an armchair. For once their forecast was wrong. Mr Hunt, though glad of the freedom which he has gained after being hard at work since he was 16, does not seek slippered ease. His first job will be at carpentering, always a

hobby of his, for he wants to build a bookcase over his working desk at his home in Eisternwick, to contain the works of reference which hitherto have been kept at the Weather Bureau.

He has a treatise to write, which may expand into a book or even a tome, elaborating the theory of the heat pool which he originated and which meteorologists overseas call by his name. Simply expressed, his theory is that when droughts have parched the vast expanse of central Australia the effect is that of a fire which draws in currents of surrounding air. Laden with moisture, the monsoons come farther south and periods of heavy rainfall follow the droughts. Grass springs up as if by magic, the dry lakes and watercourses fill, and the monsoons, returning to their old latitudes set the stage for another period of drought. Conditions in other continents, however, influence the cycle and make it probable that a tome, and not a treatise, will be necessary. Other research work may occupy his time. The vagaries of the golf ball, particularly in the rough, the relative deadliness of bishops and rooks in chess, and the delicacies of redoubling in bridge, will offer him immense scope for forecasts of a kind.

And one thing he cannot help chuckling over. He will not be blamed by flappers for wet week ends; nor will curious eyes follow him into the city, noting whether he is wearing white duck or carrying an umbrella. He retires in the knowledge that the Australian wide organisation of the weather service which he has built up is functioning smoothly. For two years it has not been necessary for him to leave Melbourne, so satisfied is he with the conduct of affairs in the various States.

Henry Ambrose Hunt is a son of the late E. J. Hunt, marine engineer, and was born within sight of Kennington Oval, London. As a lad he went to Russia with his father, who had a commission from the Czar, to design warship engines, and was there three years. His father then came to Sydney as an expert in refrigerating machinery and the lad, then 18 years of age, accompanied him.

The father returned to his beloved Clydeside, but} the son entered the meteorological service of New South Wales. He had been acting as head of the department for two years when at the end of 1906 he was appointed to take charge of the Commonwealth bureau. He took over on January 1 following and entered with enthusiasm on the task of unifying the methods obtaining in the various States. This took a year. Owing to the concentration of statistical work at the central office

in Melbourne expenses of Commonwealth control have been less than if the States had carried on meteorological work separately, but nevertheless great development has taken place. * Under Mr Hunt's control the wear ther has become one of the most popular subjects of table chat and at the same time the hard working aide de camp of science and industry. Special reports are supplied for mariners, aviators, fruit growers, salt makers and others who are at the mercy of sudden changes of weather. Warnings of floods and bush fires are given and mothers are afforded timely advice of changes like'y to affect the health of children. The Electricity Commission is guarded against electrical storms, butchers are helped in their abattoir work, and the railways know through the weather bureau when tarpaulins ought to be draped over wheat in transit. As to the daily forecasts, the records show that they have been 87 per cent correct. Mr Hunt had to map the mountains and valleys, the hills and dales and the watersheds of a 1! Australia. His work has been of international importance, but money has not always been available for the, publication in book form of the data obtained through the years. He is modest about his career. His staff, he says, has done the work, and he has received the bouquets. He forgets the brickbats. The public, he declares, is indebted to the 6000 honorary observers everywhere in Australia except in the "blind spot" of the centre.

These observers are police, postmasters, doctors, graziers, farmers, and schoolmasters who can all be depended upon for reliable reports. The post office and Amalgamated Wireless have franked all weather messages and have been otherwise very helpful, and Mr Hunt says that the press and the broadcasting stations have given invaluable aid. Mr Hunt has been very patient with the many correspondents who have been anxious to tell him how sunspots, icebergs and radio transmission influence the weather. He has taken pains to prove that there is nothing in these fanciful theories. He has had his humorous moments, as when he learned that six inches of rain had fallen in 24 hours over the lands of a Mallee farmer who had just before expressed his conviction in a letter that the drought was being caused by wireless broadcasting.

It is expected that his successor will be chosen from the Commonwealth weather service. Names that have been mentioned are those of Messrs H. Barkley and W. S. Watt, assistant directors; Mr D. J. Mares, divisional meteorologist for New South Wales; and Dr E. Kidson, director of the New Zealand service, who was formerly at the Commonwealth weather bureau.