The Waikato Times. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6. 1911. WATER DIVINING.

Waikato Times, Issue 12123, 6 November 1911, Page 4

The Waikato Times. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6. 1911. WATER DIVINING.

Many people in the North. Island, including a number in Waikato, have reason to thank the Rev. H. Mason for his efforts to locate water. Recently Professor Sir Ray Lancaster described! water divining as a rather silly superstition, and naturally the the people who have faith in the powers of the bent twig have protested very vigorously. Professor Barrett, a scientific man of some repute, writes in the Occult Review that be Ijas convinced himself by careful investigation that the water diviners frequently justify their professions. >'■' Wdittti all respect 1 to the learned geologists who are consulted on the best site for sinking a well,"

he states, " the humble and often illiterate dowser has again and again been successful in certain regions where the best scientific advice has failed." A correspondent of the Daily News related his own experience in the matter. He said that he had been most sceptical regarding the claims of persons, who- offered to find wells with the assistance of a bit of wood, but he had teen converted. He had been engaged in choosing a 6ite for a new well when a farmer's wife told him that a certain young domestic possessed powers of (divination. The girl was sent for and she produced a freshly-cut forked twig, which she carried about the farm. When she reached & spot that appeawVparticularly unpromising,, her hands were " violently agitated " and the twig announced the presence of water in the traditional way. A well was sunk at this point and .waiter was sunk at a depth at twelve feet, although all the other wells in the neighborhood were at least thirty feet deep. Bit Sir Ray Lancaster refuses to be convinced. He says that cures of diseases are often effected after recourse has been toad to charms, spells and faith medicines otf various sorts, but that fact does not prove the curative efficacy of magic. He thinks that the finding of so common a thing as water may be the result of chance, assisted perhaps by unconscious observation of the lay of the country. It should foe possible for scientists to reach an exact conclusion on the subject by submitting some of the water-diviners to severe tests under varying conditions. But the public, of course, will cling to its superstitions despite all that science may say. Notwithstanding this learned lopinion there will be many people in New Zealand who 1 will hold to the belief, and rightly so because they are in a position to judge, that it is not a superstition 'but an indisputable 'fact.