ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 17 
We come next to the great fires which have occurred in Sydney ; 
and in examining these fires I have assumed that if a fire pro 
duced rain, the rain would fall within forty-eight hours. I think 
in strictness, for reasons which will appear presently, the time 
allowed should be much shorter. I have gone back to 1860 (or 
twenty-one years), and I have not taken every fire, because many 
were so small that it would not have given a fair expression of 
our experience to include them. I have, in fact, only taken the 
large fires and serious explosions, and as I read over the following 
list you will remember that many of them were enormous confla- 
grations, causing a constant rush upwards of heated air for many 
hours in succession ; and if a fire can upset the unstable equili- 
brium of the atmosphere by causing an uprush of air, some of 
these fires were just of the character to do it, confined as they 
were within four walls, and burning furiously for many hours. 
March 1, 1860, Dean & Co., auctioneers; no rain for days. 
October 3, 1860, Prince of Wales Theatre ; light rain before and 
after, does not seem to have been affected by fire. January 24, 
1861, Boylson’s flour-mill; no rain for days. June 20, 1861, 
Curran’s furniture shop ; no rain for many days. August 3, 1862, 
J. and E. Row, chemists ; raining for two days before, and cleared 
off the night of the fire. June 20, 1865, St. Mary’s Cathedral ; 
no rain for many days. July 20, 1865, J. Frazer & Co.’s stores ; 
the wind had been westerly for days, and changed before 3 p.m. 
to S. and §.S.E., and the humidity rapidly increased ; the fire was 
announced at 8.30 p.m., and it began to rain at 9.30 p.m., 
and during the night and next day 0°60 inch fell. Novem- 
ber 16, 1865, 24 tons gunpowder exploded at Penrith; no 
Tain at Sydney. December 14, 1865, Walsh, grocer, three 
shops; change of wind to south next day, and light rain 
_ at6.30 p.m, or fourteen hours after, evidently an ordinary change. 
_ December 21, 1865, Hill’s furniture shop; no rain for days. 
4 < 16, 1866, Wearne’s flour-mill; no rain for two days 
, and then with change of wind to south ; barometer 
i ing days before March 4, 1866, explosion of nitro-glycerine- 
