Independent (Deniliquin, NSW : 1901 - 1946), Friday 27 February 1914, page 4


Climate.

NO CHANGE IN AUSTRALIA. 55 YEARS RECORD.

EFFECT OF DEFORESTATION. Tbn Oldest Inhabitant (you will find him all over the country) has a way of putting his elbow on the fence

and telling his next door neighbour, who' belongs to the New Generation, that things are not what they used to be. Especially the weather. There are two things which we can never have again ; they are the ' good old times ' and the weather that went with them. " It's colder in winter than it used to be,' says O.I., 'and it's very much warmer in summer. We never thought anything of a hard day's work in the summer those days ; but how can a man work nowadays, when the sun's as hot as ——.' He stops short at the word ' furnace,' because he catches sight of Daisy just then, and says, ' Even Daisy shows it.' Daisy is ruminating hard, but whether it is over the weather or not one cannot be sure. But there is no mistaking the irritation the flies are causing her, as she throws her tail to and fro. The fact is, however, that the cow was not born in the days that the old

man speaks of, and consequently knows nothing about them. We may go further, and state (on the authority of Mr Wilson, of the Government Meteorological Bureau) that neither rainfall nor temperature shows any change compared with what it was 50 or 60 years ago. Our old men simply think our modern summers are warmer because they have got older and Iess able to stand hard work, and they think it colder in winter because their medical advisers tell them they must wrap up and nurse their rheu matism. WHAT THE FIGURES SHOW. Mr Wilson sat down, with a big re-cord book in front of him, and said : ' Let' us take the temperature of Sydney, the mean of which stands at 63. In January, our record month (it was in January, 1896, that 108.5 degrees was registered in Sydney) we find a few days when the temperature exceeded 100— in 1902, in 1912, and in 1913. In the two years in between

1909 and 1912 the temperature was Just in the nineties. We go back 12 years from 1909 without getting 100 degrees, and then comes the record of 1896. Then there was another spell of six years until we got 100, another spell of four years, and then a long spell of 14 years. ' Now take the extreme minimum temperatures, still keeping to January. Our records only go back to 1859, and we can only judge as to whether there has been any change in the lifetime of persons now living. The extreme for this period of 55 years was 51.2 in 1865. The nearest approach to that was 51.6 in 1897, but for the last 10 years the extreme minimum tempera-ture has not varied more than from 55 to 60. Generally speaking, it shows an evenness all through. What occurred 50 years ago occurs today. For July the average temperature in Sydney is 52 4. It was 52.4 14 years ago. In 1880 it was 51. The lowest July reading is 35.9, which occurred in 1890, and the nearest approach to that was 36.1 in 1883. For the past 14 .years the extreme minimum tem-peratures have only varied between 37 and 43. In the first year of our ob-servations — in 1859 — the extreme minimum was 37.1. I think it can safely be said that no change is to be noted in the Sydney climate. ' Glance now at the rainfall. The average rainfall for January in Syd-ney is 3½ inches —that is the average for 55 years. The average rainfall in 1900 was 3.61, and at the present time it is 3.52, nine points less than it was 14 years ago. But it still re-mains about 3½ inches, as it was 55 years ago. As with Sydney, so else-where. There are exceptional years, of course, when there is either more rain than usual, or less than usual, but we cannot say that there is any falling off yet.' EFFECT OF DEFORESTATION.

As to the question whether defores-tation has any influence on climate, Mr Wilson said that it had been in-vestigated in the United States and elsewhere, and the majority of those who had studied it had come to the conclusion that if the grass were allowed to grow in place of forests it was equally good so far as the rainfall was concerned. 'The grass keeps the soil together,' he said. ' If there is no growth at all, the rain simply washes the soil away, and the result is that the rainfall is repelled.'

At a meeting of the council of the Liberal Association last Monday Mr Wade stated that, in view of the large majority secured by the Labour party, there was little likelihood of the Par-liament running for less than three years'. ' Under the circumstances,' said the leader of the Opposition, "the same strenuous activity can scarcely be expected from me as during the last Parliament ; and in the interval I propose to devote more time lo private practice.' A full grown leopard escaped from the Melbourne Zoo on Friday night, and wandered about Brunswick for some time, eventually reaching the yard of the dwelling of Mrs and Miss Waters. The latter were terrified by the attitude of the animal which was showing resentment at being again within an enclosure. In response to their cries for help, Mr Lacey, a rifle-man, came to their assistance and shot the leopard. A tragedy is reported from the small town of Neville, near Carcoar, where Mrs Osborne is reported to have shot her two sons, aged 8 and 3 years respectively, her daughter, aged 11, and herself. She then took poison, with fatal results. The youngest boy is also dead.