View report page

2 meteorology.
After an interval of over eight years any estimate of the population must be regarded
with more or less suspicion. The statistics included in an annual report are of the nature of
a balancing of accounts; but with the census at decennial intervals one is in much the same
position as would be a commercial firm endeavouring to make up annual balance sheets
without the annual stocktaking. If the natural increment is to be relied upon as even
approximately accurate, the estimates of population used in this report are too low, and the
rates, consequently, too high. It has, however, to be borne in mind that there has been for
some few years a progressive increase in the proportion of "empties," the effect of which in
reducing the population cannot be gauged, owing to the difference between the definition of
a "house " for census and for rating purposes. The establishment of a quinquennial census is
much to be desired. Until really reliable estimates of the population are provided for the
calculation of vital statistics, little progress can be made in the study of the results of
municipal sanitary work.
METEOROLOGY.
In Table 1 will be found the principal meteorological data for 1909, in comparison with
those for the preceeding four years.
The mean temperature (morning readings) was 48.7, the lowest recorded in any of the
five years, and the difference between the wet and dry bulb readings (2.6°) the smallest
during the same period. The range between the maximal and minimal temperatures was not
so marked as in previous years. There was a considerable increase both in the total rainfall
and in the number of days on which rain fell, and, although the number of days on which
sunshine was recorded shows a considerable reduction (from 285 days in 1908 to 273 in 1909),
yet there was but a slight decrease in the total number of hours of bright sunshine (1,401 hrs.
48 mins. in 1908; 1,460 hrs. 07 mins. in 1909).