Kain-Maker

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 419, 4 July 1947, Page 9

Kain-Maker

\iTH the daily level of Lake Coleridge front-page news in the Christchurch papers, the story of the 1916 San Diego Deluge sounded an ironical one from 3ZB. This, moreover, Actually Happened. It appears that during the greatest drought in their history, the San Diego City Council threw caution and incredulity to the winds (listeners are invited to do likewise), and summoned Hatfield, the Rain Maker, who had already made a name for himself in other parts of the country, to come and Make Rain. Hatfield came, They jibbed a little at his "price ("10,000 dollars to make the lake overflow. Anything over 50 inches free, gentlemen") but finally they agreed. to let him go ahead, Hatfield purchases some chemicals, runs up a few 35-foot towers, and Makes Rain. He goes on making rain. Things get so bad that they have to land a steamer full of Marines, whereupon things rapidly get worse. Hatfield, who~has prudently removed himself from the scene, sends in his bill, which the councillors ignore, When his final reduction to a modest 1,800 dollars is also rejected, he sues the council, and of course loses the case through lack of evidence that he made the rain. Unfortunately for Mr. Hatfield, it does not seem to have occurred to him to turn the waterworks on San Diego .with a vengeance, and so have the mayor pleading for for--giveness with a blank cheque and the water lapping at his chin. And perhaps even more unfortunately for us, it does not seem to have occurred to anyone else to get Mr. Hatfield’s address.