The Evening Star SATURDAY, MAY 30, 1874

Evening Star, Issue 3516, 30 May 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, MAY 30, 1874

Soon after, the formation of the Royal Society, His Most Sacred Majesty King Charles the Second thought that considerable fun might possibly be got out of that learned body j in fact, he thought that he would take “ a rise ” out of them, to use a slang term. He accordingly gravely propounded to them the following question :—“ What is the cause of the increase in the weight of a fish after it is dead 1 ” The question was fully discussed; every reason that could possibly be assigned for the remarkable fact was advanced, and ultimately rejected. The Fellows of the Society were fairly non-plussed. At last one of their number suggested that the experiment should be tried : that it should be determined whether the statement implied in the question was true or not A balance was procured, the fish was weighed, first alive and then dead, and the Fellows of the Society found that they had been most egregiously “ sold.” The weight was exactly the same in each case. Persons who have dabbled even a little in logic are acquainted with this sophistical trick. It is called, we believe, “The Fallacy of Instatement which has not been proved is assumed to be true, and then a question is- founded on the assumed statement, for the purpose of puzzling an opponent. To ask a man if he had left of robbing his master’s till would be to afford an excellent example of this kind of fallacy, and one which would in very many instances cause the person employing it to find himself, after a very brief interval, lying on the flat of his back, with his countenance more or less damaged. Some such result as this occurred from the (probably un-

conscious) employment of this pretty little dodge in the Council yesterday afternoon by an honorable member. The question that was put ran something like this—“ Is there any truth in the report that a sum of £7OO has been lost out of the Treasury?” The Provincial Secretary, however, appears to have been altogether too old a bird to be caught by any such chaff, and the questioner was forced by his tormentor to go through, the humiliating process of showing that the report referred to was of an altogether different nature from, that implied by the question he had put—that it was an affair of change of terms of sale, and involved ro loss whatever. As it was explained by Mr Reid, purchasers who know that they will have interest to pay on the amount of purchase money, will bid less than they will if they know that they have to pay nothing extra. Altogether the little poke at the Government was rather a failure. If the honorable member had put his question in a straightforward manner, he might have elicited the fact that there had been some trifling oversight on the part of the Government, and have received no personal damage. As, however, he preferred an “ indirection,” he got himself gather severely sat upon.

In this Colony an account of the state of the weather at the principal telegraph stations is sent to the principal ports throughout New Zealand ; but there is no well-directed central weather office, under the control of an experienced meteorologist. We learn from the ‘.Toronto Globe’ that it has been proposed by some of the members of the “United States Retrenchment Committee” to abolish or cut down the “Storm Signal Service Bureau.” The ‘Globe’ adduces statistics of a somewhat startling character, to show that this Bureau is of such eminent service to the shipping on the Lakes that its abolition would be almost a national misfortune As these statistics are interesting, and show what sort of results might be anticipated if -we had a similar institution in this Colony, we place them bc-fore our readers. The disasters to shipping on the Lakes alone that took place before and after the establishment of the Storm Signal Bureau were as follows :

The Storm Signal Bureau established stations along the Lakes in 1870.

These figures, of course, speak for themselves. The average number of disasters each year before the establishment of the Weather Office was 972. In the first year after its establishment, it is to be presumed that the Lake sailors placed little confidence in weather signals. The next year they began to suspect that there might be something in it i and the third year they concluded that the clerk of the weather really understood his business. As the ‘ Globe’ remarks, the amount saved on the Lakes alone in one vear would be sufficient to repay the nation'the whole expense of the Bureau, Tt would be well if we learnt a lesson from this. Here is virtually a new industry, the business of pre serving vessels from shipwreck. It has been proved to be a paying concern—a penny saved isapenny earned. Whyshould notihisColony also have its clerk of the weather ? Vessels enough, of oue kind and another, are lost alonj* the coast, aud no satisfactory provision has yet been made for preventing thesedisasters. It is true that there are some clumsy arrangements, by means of which it can bo notified to vessels near the shore, say at Oatnaru, that it would be better for them if they were “out of that.” But as no reliable information can, with the present arrangements, be given till there is either a heavy sea running, or a fierce gale of wind blowing, very little good can result from signals being made. It is of little use, as has been often shown at Oamaru, to tell the captain of a ship that is already “reeling to and fro like a drunken man,” that he would be safer out at sea. He knows that only too well. What is w’anted is a system of signals to give information about any storm that is going to commence, not about one that has commenced. One example may be given from the Report in question, to show what an amount of good may be done at one station alone. At Savannah, on one warm, bright afternoon, a telegram was received from a port some distance off. A certain signal was hoisted. Ships had sailed that morning ; others were making sail. These latter obeyed the signal, aud remained in port. Home time afterwards a terrific circular storm burst over the port; every ship that had sailed in the morning was lost; the others were saved. Oue signal station aud one telegram saved scores of lives and a vast amount of property. These very bad storms are not frequent in New Zealand ; still, as we said before, there are quite enough preventive disasters to shipping in the course of the year to warrant the Government in establishing a really efficient Storm Signal Service.

In 1867 931 In 1868 983 In 1869 ... ... 1,002 Total ... 2,916

For 1870 971 For 1871 750 For 1872 314 Total ... 2,035