THE "REASON WAY."

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 162, 12 April 1872, Page 5

THE "REASON WAY."

The Tararialti ' evvß"*' present anomalous condition of £luj weather which has for some time' pant prevailed upon the East and West Coasts, is accounted for by the explanation given by Maury and other meteorologists, as to the cause of those-' hot dry winds which are the distinguishing feature of the weather in several parts of the world, which explanation is strikingly illustrated thisseason in New Zealand. Their explanation is that winds laden with moisture, as are the westerly winds in- New Zealand, are intercepted by snow-clad mountain ranges, and that'two effects follow. The first is a heavy rainfall on the windward side of the range, and. the second is the complete abstraction of the moisture from the by its encountering the freezing temperature on the mountains. What isthus a wet wind on one side of the range becomes a dry hot wind on the leeward side, producing a perceptible difference in the natural vegetation of the country, and materially influencing, when of long continuance, the condition of the crops. Instead of the wind ortt the leeward side being a cold wind, as most people would suppose, the effect of the snow-clad mountain-tops, such as those of the Southern Alps, is actually to raise the temperature of the •vind, or at any rate to rob it of that moisture with which it comes laden froin the sea. It is thus that we have this year the apparent anomaly of frequent and heavy rains and flooded rivers on the West Coast, while on the eastern sea-board of the island-the rivers are either dry or reduced to a series of water-holes, the grain crops are comparative failures,, and bush and grass fires are frequent and desolating. .