THE SUN AND PLANETS

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 15987, 2 December 1919, Page 11

THE SUN AND PLANETS

MR CLEMENT WRAGGE’S LATEST. NOT THE LEAST REASON FOR SCARE. ‘ To Ike Editor. Sir, —I have before' rue your issue of November 28tli. There is no person on ■earth that I respect and honour more than my most esteemed friend and coworker, Mr J. T. Ward, and I am sincerely pleased to have his valued opinion. Now, while Professor Porta—and I, too, had not heard of him anterior to his prediction—seems very decidedly to be drawing the “long bow" on the one hand and unduly scaring people, Mr Ward seems inclined to pull the “negative Low" too pronouncedly on the other. For my part I prefer to take the middle course. The astronomical positions of the planets with respect to the sun during December cannot be upset, neither can any scientist deny that wireless electric or magnetic waves permeate the cosmos, linking up by action and reaction, acceleration and retardation, suns, systems, and planets ad infinitum. It is quite reasonable to suppose that with. Neptune, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Yenus, and Mercury (taking them in the order* of their declinations) on the one side of the sun, with the great planet Uranus on the other, some abnormal magnetic thrill will permeate, the solar system and produce unusual disturbance in the sun. And since the sun is the dynamo that controls every form of energy on earth, and as it appears that the earth will be nearly at right angles to the line of magnetic force, the logical reasoning is that the earth must respond in some way. Therefore seismic and tidal actions are not improbable, with great atmospheric disturbance in those regions of this planet that fall within the “swish" of the “gigantic searchlight." I am by no means specially mentioning New Zealand, and there is not the least reason for scare,‘ since nothing at all may happen here. At the same time I trust that my common sense would keep me away from such localities as White Island and Ruapehu at this period. Now that is about, the gist of it. If people will only bo reasonably prudent and take the sensible middle view', there will be indeed “no need to lose sleep," unless the view -the Aurora Australis, wliich may or may not take place. The earth’s avis may experience a. “magnetic shiver" —it is a hare possibility—but the probabilities are that it will not; and that “God’s Own Country" will go evently on its way and rejoice in a new and wise Government. Meantime it will be interesting to watch the cables.—l am, CLEMENT L. WRAGGE. Wraggo Institute, Birkenhead, Auckland, December 1, 1919.