THE WEATHER.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, 23 February 1880, Page 2

THE WEATHER.

. — _^ — — . The New Zealand Herald makes the following pertinent remarks— That unfailing topic of conversation, the weather, has certainly never furnished more fertile subject of discussion than during the present season, when we cannot take up a paper without com* rug across some theory or other pro

poundeu to account for the abnormal state of things that we have been ex> perieneing. As a matter of course, our old friend, the Gulf Stream, comes once more promiently to the front, Dr Hector having as usual diverted it from Jta course to explain away the wretched and extraordinary atmospheric condition with wbich we have been afflicted. This long sufferins aqueous mass has oyer and over again been thus " diverted " in season and out of season whenever any marked change of mean temperature has been experienced, and when this cannot be proved, some individuals of a daring turn of mind have spoken of a " res flection of the Polar curren 1 ," aa affording just as satisfactory an elucidation of the existing difficulty. Spots in the sun, or absence of said spots, are otlvr reasons sometimes assigned for thermal depressions. It is not worih while examining into the vali* dity of these several hypotheses, as none of them can at all account for or explain the meterological changes which from time to time we suffer. Take for instance the Gulf Stream theory. A moment's reflection surely would suffice to show that any change in the direction of such a current must be a permanent one, for an ocean river of several thousand miles in length could not; possibly be deflected or " diverted " from its source in one year only to return to ife in the next. Besides, there is no known physical ageucy at work competent to cause any such change in the path of the Gulf Stream ; and, what is more to the present purpose, no such change has been observed, its course in the time during which it haa been under observation having been practically constant.