STORM SIGNALS.
If, says the “New Zealand Herald,” the system we have lately adopted in the colony of telegraphing the state of the weather, the fall and rise of the barometer, and maintaining a succession of meteorological observations, prove only a tithe as valuable to our shipping interests as has proved to have been the ease in Toronto, we shall have little reason to complain of the slight .additional expense incurred by the service, or the small extra labor which harbormasters, pilots, and others will be called upon to give. The “ Toronto Globe” adduces statistics to show the extreme service they have proved to prevent shipping disasters. As these records arc interesting, and show what has been the result, we give a few particulars relating to the shipping on the Lakes alone that took place before and after the establishment of the storm signal service. These are as follow : In 1867 931 In 1868 983 In 1869 1002 Total .2916 The Storm-signal Bureau established stations along the Lakes in 1870—■ Nor 1870 ... 971 For 1871 750 For 1872 311
Total ... ... 201)5 These figures, of course, speak for themselves. The average number of disasters each year before the establishment of the Weather Ofiicc was 072, In the first year after its establishment, it is to be presumed that the Lake sailors placed little confidence in the weather signals. The next year they began to suspect that there might be something in it; 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 year would be sufficient to repay the nation the whole expense of the Bureau. We trust that with such an example before us, no cheese-paring policy on the part of the Government will allow such a service to be only partially carried out. It might be well to consider whether a small impost might not with great propriety be levied upon rll vessels enjoying the benefit of these observations in proportion to their tonnage.
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Bibliographic details
Globe, Volume I, Issue 19, 22 June 1874, Page 3
Word Count
344STORM SIGNALS. Globe, Volume I, Issue 19, 22 June 1874, Page 3
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