Meesox. — The Bainfall of New Zealand. 557 



0-649 beloNV the average, aud we get for this year the 

 following : — 



21-872in. fell oil 46 davs, wind being S.E. 



15-150in. „ 25 ' „ S.W. 



ll-788in. „ 56 „ N.W. 



943in. „ 6 „ N.E. 



0-340in. „ 3 „ E. 



OOTOin. „ 1 „ W. 



and, as in 1880, nothing from north and south. This 

 table probably represents what w^e want fairly correctly. 

 Combined with the other, it shows us that, while the 

 wind in Wellington comes, almost entirely from south-east 

 and north-west — as we might suppose from the peculiar con- 

 figuration of the surrounding country — the rain comes from 

 south-east, north-west, and south-west. Wind from the last- 

 mentioned quarter is rare in Wellington, but when it does 

 blow it almost invariably brings heavy rain. En imssant it 

 may be remarked that the great prevalence of north- west 

 weather at Wellington must be owing to more than local 

 physical features, for it predominates also largely at Wanga- 

 nui, where the country round about is comparatively open. 



For Dunedin the year 1880 had a rainfall sufficiently near 

 the average (only l-Ollin. below it) to justify us in accepting 

 the results deducible therefrom. 



S.W. blew on 77 days, and 12-324in. fell on 50 of those days 



Calm prevailed on 115 



N.E. blew on 73 



S.E. „ 14 



W. „ 47 



E. „ 22 



N.W. „ fi 



S. „ G 



N. „ 6 



It would not help us much to compare with these the 

 retm-ns from 1881 and 1882, for the rainfall in the former of 

 these years was nearly 6in. below the average, and that in 

 the latter nearly lOin. above it. So we may consider the 

 quarters from which the rain comes in Dunedin to be south- 

 west, north-east, south-east, and west, though a summary 

 given in the Meteorological Eeport of 1868 makes the rain 

 for the years 1853 to 1860 to have come principally from 

 west, south-west, south, and north-east. It will be noticed 

 that the disparity is not great. 



As regards Christchurch, the returns for the period in 

 question are too meagre to enable me to construct such tables 

 as the above. But fuller and more reliable statistics are 

 available if we accept those recorded at Lincoln Agricultural 

 College. The average annual rainfall is 2in. or Sin. greater at 

 Lincoln than at Christchurch, though the places are so near 



