548 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



for longer or shorter periods, within the past thirty years:'-' 

 whereas in the United States there \Yere, in 1882, 1,200 sta- 

 tions, and a few years earher in Great Britain 2,200. To 

 secure, continuously, careful daily observation of meteorological 

 phenomena you cannot calculate in a young country like this 

 upon the voluntary assistance of persons whose means, in- 

 clination, ability, and leisure prompt them to gratuitously 

 gather statistics for the common beneiit. It is therefore im- 

 perative that the work should be undertaken by the Govern- 

 ment. Not that it is desirable to thoughtlessly increase still 

 further the State functions. There has been far too much of 

 that kind of thing already amongst us. But such work, of 

 really trifling cost, as is not likely to be undertaken by indi- 

 vidual effort or social co-operation, and is yet called for in the 

 interests of the community, is precisely what the State should 

 undertake, and do thoroughly. Something has, of course, 

 already been done, but not nearly enough. In regard to our 

 weather-forecasts perhaps less might be attempted without 

 much loss being inflicted on the community ; and the money 

 saved by the suppression of the Weather-Signal Service Depart- 

 ment could be advantageously disbursed in securing and pub- 

 lishing reliable meteorological statistics from the various parts 

 of the colony. The value, industrial and commercial, of rain- 

 fall statistics particularly needs no demonstration. Drainage 

 W'orks, flood warnings, waterworks, sanitary considerations, 

 agi'icultural operations, &c., will, in course of time, as popula- 

 tion becomes denser and the interests involved consequently 

 of greater magnitude, necessitate ampler retmiis than those 

 available at present. However, wdiat Scott says of the weather 

 phenomena of the Old World applies also to the New : " Statis- 

 tics are not so much wanted as brains to use them," thotigh 

 both perhaps are desiderato in reference to New Zealand 

 meteorology. 



Statistics of rain, even when ample, are liable to the same 

 objections as meteorological figures generally. In other parts 

 of the world large masses of these have been collected for long 

 periods of time, and yet Abercrombie considers it is difficult 

 "to attach any physical significance to them." Mean tem- 

 peratures, e.g., and average rainfalls are just the things that 

 scarcely ever occur in actual experience. They can be pro- 

 duQed, moreover, by such widely different factors that they 

 connote nothing reliably. In weather, more than in anything 

 else, it is true that " rien nest certain que i'ijtqn-evu." The 

 destruction of Napoleon's army by unusually early winter in 

 1812 — considerably earlier than Laplace had foretald it — 



* Omitting the seven places where observations have been only made 

 for twelve months or less. 



