196 Physical Geography of 



Although we then possessed only very scanty meteorological material 

 from the West coast, I may state that the observations since taken for a 

 number of years at the meteorological station at Hokitika have amply 

 verified my views on the subject, as stated in the lecture in question. 

 Prom the time that the first explorer set his foot on the "West Coast of 

 this Island to the discovery of the goldfields, the difference of rainfall on 

 the opposite coasts has always been a topic of great interest. It is 

 obvious that the quantity of rain falling will seem still larger when 

 the explorer is travelling in a forest which, generally, before it is 

 thoroughly dried after a downpour, is again soaked through by new 

 showers. 



When writing in 1S65 on the subject, we had not sufficient data to 

 go upon to determine, with accuracy, the differences, in inches, of the 

 rainfall between the two coasts, although the valuable observations of 

 Dr. Hector, in 1863, for seven months, from the first of June to end of 

 December, showed that there fell, in the south-western part of this 

 island, 87 inches, whilst in Dunedin it was only 23i, proving that 

 the quantity of rain was more than three times and a-half as great at 

 the West Coast as at the East Coast. Concerning the difference between 

 Christchurch and Hokitika, we had only reliable data since the 29th 

 of April, 1865, when Mr. John Pochfort set up a rain-gauge at the 

 latter town. Prom the 29th of April to the 3rd of July, 1865, inclusive,. 

 67 days, 36i inches of rain fell in Hokitika, whilst in the corresponding 

 period it was only 7-§- inches in Christchurch ; consequently, about the 

 fifth part. In the meteorological reports of the colony for the year 

 1875, the annual rainfall for 1874 is given for Hokitika as 104"4S0, and 

 the mean for the previous eight years as 113*116; for Christchurch, 

 as 22*790, and for the previous ten years as 25*727 ; consequently, 

 although in some years the annual rainfall will be more than five times 

 as much at Hokitika than at Christchurch, the average will reach to 

 about four times and a-half. 



As I observed already in former publications we have to seek the 

 cause of that enormous difference in the position of the West Coast, 

 so well exposed to the equatorial currents, which bring with them a 

 greater amount of rain everywhere, where the same conditions exist, 

 and of which I shall give only a few instances. The rainfall at the 

 north-west coast of America is 80 inches ; at Bergen in Norway, 83 

 inches ; at Coimbra, in Portugal, 110 inches ; and at Westmoreland, in 

 England, as much as 134 inches annually. That there is also such a 

 similar heavy rainfall at the western coast of South America we know 



