The Chronicle LEVIN. TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1915.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 9 May 1916, Page 2

The Chronicle LEVIN. TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1915.

ASTRONOMICAL AM) METEOROLOGICAL SOri'iN'OE. Mr. Clement L. "WuAGGE.the wellknown scientist, is to pay a visit to Infill iliiis week, when lie will deliver two lectures on Astronomy, The Weather, and kindred subjects. When Mr. ragge was Government meteorologist ci Queensland, his generally-cor-rect and frequently astonishing forecasts ol the weather conditions for the whole of Australasia, and for several days ahead, sometimes set the whole continent ■ marvelling. The period to which we refer was some eighteen \ ears ago, when tho science of meteorology was a long way behind its prcs- • ent standard. A certain amount of _ personal, and sometimes professional, jealousy seemed to operate against Mr. Wra<?go and his ideas 111 those days, and to a .greater extent than ordinary in New South Wales. At all events, that was the impression formed by us from first hand observation in '..he mother colony during the period in present reference. A similar mani- <

festation of a spirit of carping criticism has been displayed "in New Zealand regarding what the presentwriter looks upon as t"he extraordinarily successful prognostications of -'lie Rev. T>. C. Bates, in his capacity as Government meteorologist. The criticism to which we refer came rrom a professional source, and" 011 tliat. account was the more regrettable; but there was additional cause for regret, I as well as wonder, in tho fact that during the season to which we are referring. Mr. Bates's proirnost.icat ions were characterised by extraordinary accuracy so far as this coast was concerned. and everywhere else, so far as we e-ould as:ertnin. except in Canterbury and Hawke's May. TV wo suts of circumstances ferin a striking t proof of the proneness of some i.vpcis of mentality to pettiness of outlook. The weather forecasts of to-lay innrMie.'ii'iy approach Mr. Wragge's older standard than did those of his contemporaries of 1808-Ifl0f): but in the interim Mr. Wragge has progressed much in other matters, fill to-day lie leads the minds of ad van -ed investigators—possiblv not on stable premises in respect of all his postulates—along lines not as clearly seen oven by the cognoscenti as soon the} I will be—and probably by the majority j of brainy men within a docade or less. I Wo are prompted to make these re- ■ marks after having peinsed in the j New Zealand Times of Monday last

what obviously is an appreciative and] well-balanccd repoi t ij Mr. "Wragge's latest lecture, which ho delivered in Wellington lust Saturday evening, m aid of a local patriotic fund. In tho course of his lecture, Mr Wragge said there were many important and yet easiliy-aseertainablc matters requiring investigation by earnest people. Hut "they must iearn to distinguish !>otweon tl.e absolute and the relative. The absolute was the lasting, the real, the good. The relative was the unreal, the temporary, the evil. Ihey all know the i'parful slaughter that was oven then taking p'ace in Fiance and on the other battlefronts of the great-st of all wars: and they all talked about the vast unmbers of men that were being killed. Hut the real men were not killed:. Being radio-active sparks of God, they could not bo killed. Only tilie shells that they wore on this earth-plane were maimed and broken and buried. The real men, whom they npokc of as killed, were alive on he astral plane. Many of those "killed" in this war had, lie said, como to him at Birkenhead on tile astral plane, <uid some of them could not believe that they were "dead," so far as the earthplane was concerned. Two of "us own sons had gone to the front, and one of them had been "killed," but he had repeatedly come to liirn on t,he astral plane and told him that he was alive on that higher plane, and that all was well with him. (Applau.se.)

One life on earth, declared; Mr Wragge, was as one day at school. Deatfti was but the gate to another life, another day at pehool: and man had to :Co to school tiD he had learned his i ssnns. Thev could not blame God for the war. It was brought about by man's ineptitude and stupidity. The war had to oome as a purge or medicine, to teach men a lesson which otherwise they stupidly refused to learn. Evolution towards good was the hw < f tlhc universe and of cosmic progress, : nd could 110 more he stopped, than the waves of the sea." Some of the" remarks foregoing will bo greeted with (sceptical smiles (tolerant or otherwise) by most people. But a "great many people, also, voui;l smile sceptically if they were assured that intricate sums in arithmetic could be worked without the use of figures. The unknown is unlrelievable to most folk, and uudioiibtcdly they are happy in their isolation from the source of wider knowledge. But the fact remains, none the less, that in went years there hive great changes in the trend'of considered thought, and in generally-held opinions 011 the continuity of life; and the truth ; s evidient. here and there, that amongst those who know 'hn late rnspeet read (though in certain aspect's open to doubt as to where human agency ceases) are some of most-basieally natural doub'tiers 'who ever were forced to investigate such problems.