FORECASTING RAIN

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 617, 23 August 1933, Page 2

FORECASTING RAIN

HEAT OF THE SEA INDICATES FALL IN NEXT SEASPN. RESULT OF TEST TRIALS. How a study of the tempemture of sea water eriables natural scientists to pfb^'ide power ipdpstries wifh advance ' informatipn "regarding ihe coming season's rainfall' in varioqs . communities of Southern^ California was" explained to thp Pacific Science Congress by Mi'. Arthur Gorton, bf S.cr'ipps Instifute, University of Squthern" California. The rain forpcast, said Mr. Gorton, is arrived at by statistical methods. Daily records of the temperature of the sea water at the end of the 1000foot pier at La Jolla are taken monthly averages are stfuck, and these are compared with the monthly averages oi earlier years. ' It hias been found by comparing tbe known rainfall and tbe known sea temperature of past years ;tbat there is : a defiriite correspondence between the two. Relationships "Vybrked Qut. The resear'ch upon which Mr. Gorton is engaged, he' said, is the working out of these relationships with regard to several distinct areas. The high Sierras region about 200 miles north of Los Angeles is the source of hoth water and power for the people of Los Angeles and viciriity. This is to be supplemented by tbe great Boulder D'ain in the Colorado River, costing 250,OQO,OOO dollars, and the Los Angeles taqueduct, costing 30,-' 000,000 dollars. It has been: found tbat in general 1 sense the high sea water tempera-

tures are followed hy dry seasons and the colder water temperatufes by a heavy rainfall, but this is merely the general trend bf the' curves in tbat particular district and would not necessarily be true of ariy other region, he explairied. The eause of the relationship between sea' temperature and rainfall is not known to natural science, Mr. Gorton said, but the theory is that both are controlled by a cominon cause to be fonnd in the highei* atmosphere. Early Civilisations Traced. The lorig-standing controversy as to whether the civilisation found in America by the eafly discoverers could have a European or Asiatic origin was the subject of disciission froiri several angles at the congress. Dr. iE. D. Merrill, director bf the botanical gardcns iat Brorix Park, New York' claimed that the Inca, Aztec and Mayan civilasitions were a 'di'stinctly American develppment. The evidence ori which he based this cppclusion was that the agriculture of America was founded on plants unknown to Europe and Asia. Until the close of the fifteenth century'ihere was not.a single basic cultivated food plant common to th'e two hemispheres nor were there any domesticated animials other tlian the dog found 'in both Enrasia and America, he said. Had not man come to) America in an exceedingly priniitive stage of his development he would have brought with him some of the cultivation biahits of other 'countries, Dr. Merrill contended. Dr. Diamond Jenness, of the Nation al Museum of Cariada, analysed • the anthropolical history 'of North Apierican ahorigines and came to the cbnclusiqn that they were'a mixed strain of several Old World stoeks. " Trerids in Manchur ia. Regardless of whether Jappn prpceeds with the ec6nbmicT develbpnient of Manchuria, the latter couritry will aiways remain pre-eminently .Chinese, Iii tke bpihjqn bf Drl 'Johii' ^. Appleton,' but the immigratioh o'f Jarid^hungry Chinese, a million in orie year, bas formed the basls of Manchurian ecbnbmib development. "I' predict j^hat 'the p'resenp 'oyerwhelniing predpminance of Chinese is likely to be maint'ained," he 'said. At present, Drl ' AppIeton pointed out, there are only 250,0.00" Japanese, 8,000 000 Koreans and" 10(5,000 Russiians in Manchuria, but" thpro are 129', 000, 000 "Chmesb. ' ' The .Chinese have been pouring in, driven from 'their owri land by urifavourahle climatic, econoniii and political conditions. Their cravmg:"is for land'.' 'Of "the Japanese population group, Dr. Appleton made this " significant comment. ".The Japanese settlement is surprisingly small5 in sptte of' governme'nt encouragemeritt " ' Climatic conditions are to* some extent a ""deterrent, but the main reason seems to he th'e inahility of the Japanese to ppttipete fd'rmer. Most of the Japanese 'are associafed with nrban industi'ial or 'gpveimment pccup^ti'ons in the cbniT*oB.ed zones."