Meteorologists On Visit To N.Z. Are Studying Rain-Making

Wanganui Chronicle, 12 April 1948, Page 5

Meteorologists On Visit To N.Z. Are Studying Rain-Making

(P A.) Auckland, April 11 Six senior officers of the Meteorological Services in the South Pacific arrived by air to attend the conference of International Meteorological Organisation, Region 5, to begin ■ in Wellington tomorrow. They were: Professor Francois Mangeney (New Caledonia), Mr. M. W. F. Schregardus (Batavia, Dutch East Indies), Mr. A. K. Roy (Calcutta), Mr. Maung Poe (Rangoon), Dr. C. del Rosario (director of the Phillipines Weather Bureau) and Mr. O. K. Anderson (American advisor to Dr. Rosario’s department). With the exception of Mr. Schregardus, who said there was too much rain in the Dutch East Indies, all were keenly interested in the artificial inducement of rain.

Dr. Rosarios said he had conducted two experiments in the Philippines, and both times had produced showers of rain over a specified area. They had spread dry ice from a Dakota aircraft on to cumulous clouds. He felt, however, that much more work w3uld have to done before the idea could be considered economically sound.

Flight-Lieutenant H. A. Pickering, of the Directorate of Air Operations, R.A.A.F., Melbourne, who, with Mr. E. W. Anderson, senior engineer o£ the Communications Unit of the Commonwealth Civil Aviation, who also arrived to attend the conference, said experiments In artificial rain-making were being conducted on e large scale in Australia. As the work was still in its trial stages, scientists were not anxious to give details of their tests. Much had still to be done before any definite conclusions could be reached.