BLESSED RAIN.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 376, 8 July 1911, Page 5

BLESSED RAIN.

THE PHENOMENA OF SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE. The recent heavy rains which caused floods in Victoria appear to have been the culmination of an unusually long period of wet weathen in that State. During the pnst twelve months the rainfall in Victoria has been exceptional, although other parts of the Commonwealth and New Zealand have experienced very dry weather. New South Wales had copious rains in January and February, but April and May were so dry that fears of a drought were entertained. The pastoral districts were devastated by grasshoppers and the wheat-grow-ing areas suffered coniderably, but happily the needs of the country have been supplied abundantly during the past few weeks. In Western Australia the scarcity of water was causing trouble not very long ago, but there also a welcome change has converted an anticipated drought into a season of plenty. In New Zealand, of course the recent frequent rains have assured an ample supply of moisture. The same air circulates all round the southern hemisphere, and as a general rule heavy rains in one part necessitate shortage of moisture in others. In 1902 Australia experienced a drought, and on the west coast of South America rainfall was extraordinarily heavy. It was a curious coincidence also that a northern extension of the Antarctic ice to the south of South America caused unusually cold weather along the west coast. The theory which is deduced, not without considerable hesitation, from this combination of circumstances is that the air circulating round the southern hemisphere was freed of its moisture by the condensing power of the cold currents from the Antarctic ice, and South America having obtained in this way more than its share of rain, Australia had to go without. If the theory is correct it is possible that there may be this year an exceptional northward protrusion of ice somewhere to the south of New Zealand and Australia, and that it is causing the heavy rainfall of the present I month.