WEATHER AND WIRELESS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 25, 28 January 1913, Page 4

WEATHER AND WIRELESS.

It is to bo hoped that by some arrangement between the Governments of New Zealand and Australia it will be found possible to retain the Macquarie Island wireless station af suggested by Professor David in his presidential address to the Scientists’ Congress at Melbourne (comments tin ‘Southland Times’). People are learn ing more and more to appreciate the value of accurate weather reports Even to people who are not spec.alh dependent upon the weather, it is fre quently a matter of importance ti know what the weather is likely to be during the next twelve or twenty-four hours, but to those who are engaged in work upon which the weather influence is felt it is an absolute necessity that reliable forecasts should be obtainable. Already the Government meteorological stations are of the greatest value to shipmasters and to sheep farmers. The meteorologist, Mr, D. C. Bates, has letters which prove that many serious losses have been averted by timely warning. In the high back country of Canterbury man,, thousands of sheep have been saved by advices of coming snowfalls sent out by Mr. Bates, and in dirty weather many ship captains call up the meteorologist to ask whether it is advisable to go to sea. In regard to shipping accurate weather forecasts may easily mean human lives, and as regards rural operations weather fore casts are of incalculable value to pastoralists who have sheep in high country and to agriculturists who have ground under crop. Now, in forecasting the weather the meteorologist depends upon the data sent in to, him from observing stations, and the wider the field of observation the more accurate is the forecast likely to be. It is really of the greatest importance to the meteorologists of Australia and New Zealand that regilar reports should be received from the islands in the far south, a quarter from which much of our bad weather comes.