SAXBY'S WEATHER WISDOM.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 557, 21 September 1869, Page 2

SAXBY'S WEATHER WISDOM.

(From the Nelson Examiner) " Coming weather " is the headiug given to a letter from Mr Saxby, which appeared in the Standard on the 20th of June, and is copied by us below. Mr Saxby appears to be angry concerning a paragraph which went the round of the JVew Zealand papers in March last. The hoax .vas so palpable that no one was deceived bv it, except the very foolish people at Hokitika who made preparations to remove their lodgings to the gaol hill. But what now is of more importance is the extraordinary high tide which Mr Saxby tells us we shall experience on the sth of next month—in England on the Gth—and concerning which Mr Saxby is doing his best to induce the residents on low parts of the coast to prepare against, as something quite unusual if not beyond all living experience. Mr Saxby is very earnest on the matter, and the result will be highly interesting, as tending to determine the soundness of the theory on which that gentleman makes meteorological predictions. There is one point, however, in Mr Saxby|s letter to which we must call attention. Mr Saxby warns farmers to expect unsettled weather at periods stated by him in the months of July, August, and September. How far these predictions were verified in Great Britain we cannot tell, but they have failed here. From the Bth to the 12th of July—we date from a preceding day to that named by Mr Saxby, as our time is about twelve hours in advance of Greenwich time —the weather was remarkably fine, the barometar ranging from 29.340 up to 30.140, the wind light, a little rain falling on the Bth. From the Gth to the 11th of August, the weather was equally fine, except on the Gth, when, with the barometer standing at 29.902, the wind at north, but blowing moderately, there was a rainfall of 2.22 inches. For the remaining " Saxby days " the wind was light,

from the S.W. The period of days named by Mr Saxby in the present month alike belied his prognostications. Excepting on the 6th, when there was a slight shower of rain during the night, the weather throughout was remarkably fine with little or no wind. He have mentioned these facts, not for the purpose of treating lightly Mr Saxby's tidal phenomenon promised us on the sth or 6th of next month, but to show that his general predictions as to weather do not always hold in New Zealand. We confess to feeling a considerable interest in the result of his coding tidal phenomenon, although we must remember that the period of the equinox is always one when tides of uuusual height may be expected. We give Mr Saxby's letter:— Sir, —Some months since you kindly admitted into your respected columns a letter from me as to the coming weather in October and November next. My warning has, like a snowball, in rolling so far as the Antipodes, entirely lost its original shape, and, indeed, it ought to be impossible to trace any reasonable connection between it and the absurd paragraph which (as copied below) appears in the Hawlce's May (New Zealand) Herald, of 26th March last, just received by me, One would scarcely have supposed that so ridiculous a hoax could have found its dupes. I should have been silent were it not that a few months since a gentleman of education in England (a man of ability in his profession) wrote to ask me to acquaint him (for a public purpose) as to the exact rise of tide which I expected to occur on the 6th of October next. Need I say that such an opinion cannot be formed by mortal man with any propriety? I really must ask the great favor of your inserting this letter, for I never assume to predict anything beyond extraordinary atmospheric disturbance ; and I still declare that I have long done so with infallible accuracy. My neighbors in Kent will remember my firm warnings as to the weather to have been expected on Easter Monday last; nor will the inhabitants of Dover forget them. The unwarrantable use of my name occasionally in New Zealand and Australia is calculated not only to damage me ; but it appears has become a dangerous inconvenience to the credulous multitude whose very pardonable ignorance of meteorology exposes them to alarm. Allow me, sir, to again explain that, when I speak of " destructive inundations " as likely to occur on or about the 6th October next, 1 only allude to extraordinary " high tides," - and such " inundations" as may possibly, in some localities, be the result of excesoiiva rains, qe storms —in fact, I'roui extreme atmospheric disturbances. I have not, even in my lists, made any mention of the 17th March, and never published or sanctioned the publication of any almanacs or books of any kind in Australia, or other foreign places which have so fraudulently borne my name. May I add that, since the weather is acknowledged to have been thus far so unseasonable this summer, it is precisely what I have for months warned Kentish farmers and others, my neighbours, against upon every opportunity, expecting a "disturbed summer like that of 1860." ; Farmers will do well to expect especially unsettled weather about July 9th to 12th, and August 7th to 11th, and September 6th to 10th. They and the public will be able, from watching those periods, to estimate beforehand what credence may be given to my special warnings against October sth to 7th and November Ist to 3rd.—l have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, S. M. Saxby. Faversham, June 19. [Extract from the ITawke's Bay (New Zealand) Herald, of March 2G, 1860.] " The Comdto Deluge.—According to the Eveninff Star, a number of silly people in Hokitika have made preparations for removing to the gaol hill for safety in anticipation of a huge tidal wave, which, it is said, Mr Saxby has predicted, will on the 17th instant, submerge all the Middle Island of New" Zealand to within twelve feet of the highest peak of Mount Cook."