Rangitikei Advocate. MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 1909. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9342, 11 January 1909, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate. MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 1909. EDITORIAL NOTES.

THE question of accident insurance and compensation is rapidly becoming a serious one to employers of labour. The new Act passed last session, which raised the compensation payable in case of death from £3OO to £SOO, caused an increase in

the rates of insurance of from 10 to 15 per cent, apart from the ijdeflned increase which will be necessary in certain trades owing to the inclusion of like miners’ complaint and lead poisoning. Every concession of this sort increases the cost of production just as much as a rise in wages would do, and though in the case of protected industries the additional cost is recovered from the public and merely goes to swell the already high cost of living, in the case of the farming, flax and mining industries, it has for the most part to come out of the pocket of the employer in the shape of reduced profits. At present every few years the screw is given another turn by Parliament, and the uncertainty resulting from this position has a very unfavourable influence on the investment of capital in industrial undertakings. It is time a halt were called and some finality reached, though with the Ward Ministry in power labour has only to ask in order to have any concession granted.

THE prophet Wragge is again in the field with the prediction on this occasion of drought for Australia and drier and warmer seasons for New Zealand. Mr Wragge, it would appear, is suffering from sun spots on the brain. The blotches on the sun’s surface which are known as spots are supposed to he due to eddies in the vast mass of heated gases which form the envelope of the sun. The fact that they can easily he recognised by telescopes of moderate power show that they must he of enormous area and their constantly changing position proves that they travel at a great rate. It is to he expected that such variations in the surface of the sun must'have a marked effect on ■ the radiation of energy in the form of heat and light to tho earth and numerous attempts have been made to establish laws connecting the number and area of snn spots with the weather and other terrestial conditions. Roughlyspeaking snn spots attain their maximum intensity every eleven years, and it has been held that this cycle corresponds with the recurring periods of jbad trade and famines. This connection has, however, not been satisfactorily established, nor has that between sun spots and volcanic disturbances. It is, therefore, evident that Mr Wragge has no scientific justification for his predictions as to drought, though he is at liberty, like everyone else, to express his private opinion that it is probable that recent good seasons in Australia will not he a permanent condition of the Australian climate. Given sufficient observations there is no doubt that it is possible accurately to predict the weather for' a day or two, or even in some circumstances, for a week ahead, but there is no reason to believe that forecasts for a month or year in advance are anything but mere guesses.