550 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



year. This is, however, the most couiplete table I can make 

 from a careful examination of the various returns available. 

 It is, therefore, very evident that our materials for generaliza- 

 tion on the subject arc very meagre. We are justified, how- 

 ever, in saying that New' Zealand as a whole is remarkably 

 well watered. The average amount of rain all over the world, 

 including, therefore, the excessive precipitation of the tropics, 

 is said — on questionable authority, certainly — to be about 30in. 

 Our average wiil be much more than that, and we are in a 

 latitude where, comparatively speaking, a little rain goes a 

 long way. 



Moreover, the table shows that New Zealand, though of 

 no very great area, has very considerable diversity in the 

 amount of its rainfall. It varies from nearly 120in. on the 

 West Coast to 26in. at Christchurch, 23in. at Oamaru, and 

 perhaps even less in the interior of Otago, wdiere, however, 

 accurate observations have not as yet been recorded. For the 

 sake of comparison we may call to mind that Australia, though 

 subject to frequent local and general droughts, and occasion- 

 ally excessive rainfall, still has no mean annual average of 

 more than 74'84in. (at Mackay, Queensland: Loomis), nor 

 any one less than 6-37in. (atEucla, South Australia : Loomis). 

 (Mr. Todd says Gin. at Charlotte Waters; 5in. at Cowarie, South 

 Australia.) Our mea.n annual average, therefore, though it 

 never sinks so low as in the great anticyclonic belt of the in- 

 terior of Australia, yet mounts much higher among and on the 

 western side of our Southern Alps. Again, the yearly average 

 number of rainy days in some parts of New Zealand is nearly 

 three times as great as in others : Auckland with 187, Wel- 

 lington with 159, and Bealey with 214, may be compared with 

 Napier which has 74, Nelson which has 84, and Oamaru which 

 has 96. The rain in some places, in fact, comes down in 

 heavy occasional falls — 9-|in. having been registered in Nelson 

 in one day, and as much as 16"39in. at Pakawau (Golden 

 Bay) in the twenty-four hours of 24th July, 1872. In other 

 places — Dunedin, e.g. — the precipitation comes down by a 

 succession of drizzles. Droughts lasting for some weeks, but 

 not very severe, occur occasionally along the greater part of 

 the East Coast; but Sir J. Hector says that " only in two 

 cases do the records show a whole month at any station with- 

 out rain." The figures from Hokitika and Bealey would 

 indicate that three days out of every five are rainy on the 

 West Coast, and amongst the Southern Alps. Generally 

 speaking, in the wetter parts of the country rain falls, as in 

 England, about every other da}' ; but in the drier dis-tricts it 

 comes one day in three or four ; in Nelson and Napier one 

 day in five. In some parts of the colony, rain is much more 

 frequent by night-time than during the day — the great fall in 



