The Daily News. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1912. THE WEATHER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 183, 1 February 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1912. THE WEATHER.

Before he left to take a Tsillet at double his New Zealand salary in Australia, a New Zealand schoolmaster remarked that the New Zealand Meteorological Office was not regarded very seriously, and. that its value was not fully appreciated by the State. He was discussing the general inclination in New Zealand to underpay experts, and stated that the value of the Government Meteorologist was so great that he would still be a fine national asset if he had a salary of £2OOO a year. No doubt when Mr. Bate» read that opinion his heart beat faster. The extention of the system of forecasting the weather is highly necessary, and 'especially where farmers are con-, cerned. Intimate and instant information during the recent hay-making season in Taranaki would unquestionably have saved many crops. The United States is a very business-like country. It does not appoint a meteorologist and a great staff of weather experts for fun. It recognises that forecasts for each district in the States may save the country millions of dollars. That is the main point considered by the bureau at, Washington, whence by every means at its disposal it communicates daily with groups of interested people all over the country ■and tells them as definitely as science cam decide what is going to happen to-mor-row. We know that with the limited means placed at his disposal the Government Meteorologist does splendid work, but, as the executive of the Farmers' Union lately suggested, there.might be a great extension of the activities of the Department and a better recognition, of the value of the work done even now. The forecasts, as we are aware, are extremely accurate, but meteorology is not sufficiently developed, although its development along American or Australian fines would pay handsomely. The farmer is, as all men know, at the mercy of tho weather. A Government which is careful to sprinkle branch Departments of various kinds through the country has not as yet recognised the value that branches of the Meteorological Department would be throughout New Zealand. Australia is not too proud to proceed in meteorological matters on the pattern sot by those acute folk, the Americans, and New Zealand might copy Australia, The New Zealand Government Meteorologist (Rev. D. C. Bates), restricted and underpaid as he is, has done splendid service since he has held his office, and it is from him the powers that be should get an opinion as to the practicability of a wide extension of the system, the setting up of weather stations in every district, the collection of data and tiw method of imparting information to thlpeople generally and the farming community in particular. Weather judges,

even in Taranaki, who prophecy the conditions that will prevail to-morrow by rule of thumb or the appearance of the mountain are not dependable, for New Zealand is so peculiarly situated that meteorological conditions offer daily problems even to the most expert, aided by the latest scientific devices. The creation of an expensive Department would be perfectly justified, because a general foreknowledge of the weather would assist every activity in the field and Vesult in a huge yearly saving.

HOKSES AND* PETROL. We have been farewelling the horse now for a good many years. When the power vehicle began to take hold, the comic papers produced pictures of interested crowds gazing at the last sorry specimen of the horse, refuged in the London Zoo. Since that time motor vehicles of many sorts have thrown millions of horse* »»t of work. The London General Omnibus Co., the greatest organisation of its kind oxisting, has now no horses at all. Its last horse omnibus driver (Andrew Gibson, who tooled busses through the traffic for thirty-seven years) is now a curiosity and a relic' In place of the busses which were so great a feature of the London traffic, the Omnibus Co. now runs 1336 motor 'busses, which drank up 6,841,270 gallon's of petrol last year, and it paid to the Government nearly £43,000 in petrol duty. But, curiously, the horse is not dead." He is not even sick. The great breeders of horses in Ireland are as busy as ever, and the demand is almost as heavy as it used to be. Hungary, which produces a very beautiful type of hack and carriage horse, is complaining that she has sent away too many mares—too many thousands, that is—and will have to gang warily; the export trade from Australia to India, China and elsewhere is ever growing; and Australia simply rushes New Zealand heayy sorts. Tlie point for New Zealand is that it produces both horses and petrol in perfection, and if she is rather too much inclined to senS her best mares to Australia because of the high prices there offered, she has at least got a huge oil supply to fall back on. The London General' Omnibus Company's increasing use of petrol is quoted as typical of the tremendous and growing demand for oil, and the consumption of oil will directly interest us as-much as the consumption of butter or wool. There is no doubt that the days'when motor vehicles are regarded as luxuries are almost past, and that countries with oil deposits will be very glad that Nature has been so kind to them. v In the meantime the horse-breeder has almost ceased to trouble, for he has found that petrol has not interfered with his business to the extent that was anticipated when early motor cars were frightening the senses out of the animal creation. As Mr. Plowden, the famous London magistrate, so quaintly says: "The spirit of the age is not Democracy—but Petrol."