Meesox. — The Rainfall of New Zealand. 565 



able observations as to the winds are those taken from the mo- 

 tion of the clouds. I cannot help thinking, however, that the 

 difficulty cf getting reliable observations as to wind in the 

 ordinary vrays is less formidable than would appear from our 

 Director's statement ; and also that the clouds are no perfectly 

 trustworthy guide, inasmuch as there are often, if not or- 

 dinarily, opposing currents of air one above the other, and it 

 is very difficult to say w"hether the clouds are in the upper or 

 lower stratum. The following quotation from Dove confirms 

 this view : ' ' Although we may admit that the direction of the 

 wind which is given by the drift of the clouds is not affected 

 by so many of the disturbing actions exerted by the surface 

 of the earth on the air which flows over it, yet a material 

 complication is introduced by the fact that the clouds give the 

 direction at times of the lower, at times of the upper, current, 

 while the vane of the weathercock only indicates the point 

 from which the undercurrent is blowing."-" Notwithstanding 

 this objection to the suggestion made, there is no doubt that 

 the mountains and gorges of New Zealand do materiallj- affect 

 local wind, and therefore local observations. 



Now, what the particular difficulties were that Dr. Hann 

 found while studying the winds of our colony he does not tell 

 us. But, apart from local peculiarities, the characters of the 

 two opposite winds— north-east and south-west — seem to me 

 very perplexing. About the former, particularly at Christ- 

 church, I have already spoken, and, as to the latter, let us 

 bear in mind that, while corresponding to the north-west of 

 the British Isles, — which is not there the wind that brings 

 most rain, — our south-west is our great rain-bearer. Our 

 north-west winds, corresponding to the British south-west, 

 should be our great rain-bringers, being equatorial, moisture- 

 laden winds, coming with low barometer to higher latitudes. 

 And I believe they do bring the rain and discharge it heavily 

 in the mountains of our Southern Alps ; but they do not dis- 

 charge it so heavily on the lowlands (evsn when those lauds 

 lie open to them and are not protected as are our Canterbury 

 plains by intervening ranges), because, since New Zealand is 

 10' or 15° nearer to the equator, the average temperature is 

 much higher than in Great Britain; and, until the cold polar 

 blasts of the south-west commence their struggle with the 

 equatorial current, there does not, as a rule, take place the 

 inevitable heavy precipitation. 



Our rains do not come with a low glass, neither the north- 

 easterly nor south-westerly. With the latter, of course, the 

 barometer almost invariably rises. The quarter of low glass 

 in the Southern Hemisphere is north-west, and it is presum- 



* " Law of Storms," p. 1-52. 



