Meeson. — The Bainfall of New Zealand. 553 



tempting any graphic representation of general rain-distri- 

 bution. 



But, besides elevation, there are other circumstances 

 which invalidate the testimony of a few local figures as to the 

 rainfall of a wide district. It is, indeed, no easy matter to 

 place a rain-gauge in such a situation as will secure a fair 

 average for the immediate neighbourhood within the radius of 

 a few miles. Every peculiarity of geographical configuration 

 aifects the precipitation. A river-valley attracts thunder- 

 storms ; dense neighbouring w'oods will diminish local tem- 

 perature, and so, to some small extent, attract rain ; a single 

 neighbouring hill will produce ascending currents of air, and 

 a circle of hills round about the observatory, particularly if 

 facing the prevailing rain-bringing winds, will considerably 

 increase the rainfall. The observations made at Nelson in 

 the earlier days of the colony — assuming them to have been 

 accurately taken — may, perhaps, in this latter way be ex- 

 plained. They were taken, as Sir James Hector observes, in 

 a situation too much surrounded by hills — namely, in the 

 ■City of Nelson itself — to be by any means a fair criterion of 

 the general rainfall of the district. They give an average of 

 62in. ; whereas, from iny own observations during the years 

 1883-86, I feel justified in saying that the average (mean 

 annual) in the immediate neighbourhood — the Waimea Plains 

 — was not more than half that amount. But there must have 

 been something altogether wrong about the figures for even 

 Nelson itself, or else the rainfall must have diminished very 

 much within twenty years. ]\Iy friend Dr. Hudson, who 

 resides in Nelson, has made careful observations for some 

 years back on the rainfall, amongst other matters meteoro- 

 logical, and he gives me the fall of 29-04in. for 1887, 28in. for 

 1888, and 26-93in. for 1889 (the latter year, it will be remem- 

 bered, had a very scanty rainfall generally in New Zealand) ; 

 and he says that, although there may be some truth in what 

 is commonly asserted, — that the climate of Nelson was wetter 

 in the earlier days of the colony than now, — he does not think 

 that the fall has averaged as inuch as 30in. for the last ten 

 years, during which he has lived in that city, or that the pre- 

 cipitation has lessened materially as the years have rolled 

 onward. Dr. Hudson's observations are borne out by those 

 of Dr. Miiller, of Blenheim, who gives for the past twenty 

 years an average of 26-84in., with a slight increase during the 

 latter decade, attributed-— rightly or wrongly — to increased 

 cultivation and arboriculture. Nelson and Marlborough have 

 very similar climates — that of the former being, as shown, 

 somewhat the wetter of the two, but certainly not so mate- 

 rially different as to double the Blenlieim average. Marl- 

 borough gets its rain mainly from the north-west ; Nelson, 



