Sunshine recorder site queried

The roof of a tall building is suggested as a better spot for the town’s paper sunshine recorder, as we take a flick through the archives. From the Marlborough Express, April 25, 1914:

The location of the Blenheim sunshine recorder is under the close observation of the municipal authorities.

The instrument was set up in the vicinity of the Literary Institute, but some doubt is felt as to whether in that position it will do full justice to the local climate, aid the question has also arisen as to whether the paper indicator has been properly fitted up.

The Government Meteorologist is being communicated with on the latter point.

It is desirable that the situation of the recorder should ensure a full flood of sunshine free from the possibility of the slightest shadowing; and it is suggested that the instrument should be placed on the roof of some high building, where this condition would be permanently afforded.

The records are to be compiled at the end of every month for the purposes of the reports to go forward to the Meteorological Office at Wellington; but it is not thought that the April returns will represent the full measure of sunshine.

An effort is to be made to do complete justice to the May allowance of King Sol’s genial influence.

ALSO IN THE NEWSPAPER

To use the words of the Mayor, the Blenheim Borough Council has been “kicking for a long time” without getting satisfaction in regard to the haphazard manner in which the coal supplies for the gasworks are weighed by the Railway Department at Picton.

The State, he said, was exempt from the provision of the Weights and Measures Act, and it took an exceedingly

unfair advantage of the immunity that it enjoyed. What the municipality lost during the course of a year through the inefficiency of the weighing system could only be guessed at; but some idea of the loss was indicated by the fact that in the case of one lot of coal which the Council was charged for as representing 300 tons there was found to be a shortage of no less than 24 tons when a test was conducted at the municipal weighbridge in Blenheim.

Perhaps the Picton Chamber of Commerce will see that the reputation of its port is at stake, and will be prepared to take a hand in the protest.

PICTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY The grand opening of the Picton Railway Station in 1914.