The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prevalebit. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1884. The Weather.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1057, 23 January 1884, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prevalebit. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1884. The Weather.

The weather is, as we all know, the conversational refuge of small minds, a topic to be seized upon with avidity by denizens of the ball room, whose intellect may be said to be concentrated in their feet. But there are times when the subject rouses greater interest, and the present is certainly one of those. In a colony like New Zealand, so largely dependent upon agriculture for her prosperity, a bad grain season is especially disastrous, and if the signs can be read aright, our farmers will this year experience the worst harvest that the typical oldest inhabitant will be able to call to mind. Some weeks ago the prospects appeared to be bright enough, and an excellent yield was foreshadowed, but during the past few days we have been visited by heavy hail and rain storms, while the temperature of the atmosphere has been as cold and bleak as in the middle of winter. No wonder that the countenances of the farmers wear an anxious and worried look, for to many of them the anticipated loss will prove almost utter ruin. The terrific hailstorm which passed over a portion of the Ashburton County on Thursday last did more damage in two hours than it will take that number of years to repair. Hundreds of acres were laid low and in someinstances cockatoos will find that they have no crops to gather in at all. Since then a continual downpour of rain has set in, and although it had ceased at the time of writing, the heavy clouds show that we have not yet seen the last of the unseasonable weather. It will of course be the smaller settlers who will feel most acutely the effects of a bad harvest, but the whole of the community will suffer more or less. Merchants and storekeepers willingly give credit to farmers until after their grain is in and sold, and where a good season is the principal guarantee for payment of accounts, it is easy to understand how much an unfavorable harvest means to everyone. It would be some consolation, though we admit a small one, if the rain had been merely local. The reports, however from all parts of the colony tell the same melancholy tale. In the North Island, especially in the Wanganui and Wellington districts, the elements have caused such havoc among the crops that it is considered more than doubtful whether it -will pay to reap them. The outlook in New Zealand* is certainly an |unpleasant one; we have passed through a long time of trade depression, and just when we were looking forward to a good grain season to compensate us to some extent, the weather has played us false. We can but hope for the best, but anybody who journeys through the country and sees the harm caused by the recent rains must ad>.ait that sanguine expectations are not justified.