554: Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



strangely enough, from the north-east, though it Hes fully 

 exposed to the north-west. Perhaps the great heat of the 

 Nelson district, lying as it does so directly to the sun, accounts 

 for the north-west winds not precipitating their moisture there. 

 But both places have northerly rains, and the trend and height 

 of the mountain-ranges between them may explain local dif- 

 ferences. The trend would be likely to give a direction, as 

 from north-east, to such tempests as come from the north and 

 perhaps north-west, and so account for the quarter and 

 amount of rain at the head of Blind Bay ; while the height 

 of the hills, not being very considerable, allows a good deal 

 of north-west weather to pass over them to their leeward — 

 i.e., Marlborough- side. The north-east rains of Nelson, how- 

 ever, may be coincident with those from the same quarter on 

 the east coast, and so arise from cyclones passing from the 

 south-west to the north of New Zealand. I observed a curious 

 fact concerning these north-eastern rains of Nelson during my 

 residence there. The weather forecasts from Welhngton in- 

 variably foretold these rains correctly ; but as to rains from 

 any other point of the compass the prognostications of Captain 

 Edwin invariably failed. 



Notwithstanding that much of what has just been said 

 weakens confidence in the earlier figures for the Nelson Pro- 

 vince, I have accepted them, as they cover a greater number 

 of years than recent observations. 



For the above and other reasons it will be clearly impos- 

 sible for us to very sharply divide New Zealand into rainfall 

 provinces. We can only roughly approximate to the truth 

 from such information as we do possess. We know certain 

 points where precipitation is heavy, and round these w^e place 

 our darker tints ; others where the fall is light, and to the 

 districts round these we give light hues. An acquaintance 

 with the leading principles of the law of storms and with 

 local geographical peculiarities will help to give firmness to 

 our touch ; but, after all, such a map for a colony of such area 

 as ours, and such diversity in its rainfall, and so few^ observ- 

 ing-stations, must be largely a matter of conjecture, based on 

 slight premisses. I give it for what it is worth, merely re- 

 marking that I have found it convenient, in view of the data 

 possessed, to divide the colony into five zones or belts, two of 

 which are only found in the South Island — viz., that of 20iu. 

 to 30in. (on the eastenr side), and that of over 75in. (on the 

 western) ; the other three — 30in. to 40in., 40in. to 50in., and 

 50in. to 75in. — extend, in all probability, more or less con- 

 tinuously through the entire length of both Islands. 



