ICE AGE WINTER.

Auckland Star, Issue 38, 14 February 1929, Page 7

ICE AGE WINTER.

FEARFUL TOLL. NEAR 20,000 DEATHS. Heavy Frosts And Raging Blizzards. 'FLU CLAIMS MANY VICTIMS. (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) (Received 11.30 a.m.) I'ARIS, February 13. St a 1 i.-tics collected throughout Europe show that the deaths due to the so-called "ice age" Avinter arc approaching 20,000. There are at least 2100 deaths from influenza and pneumonia in France alone, and several hundred deaths from drowning and shipwrecks.

More than 100 people are reported to have l>eeii frozen to death in Europe, and to-day's reports show little abatement of the freezing conditions

Nancy has registered 54 degrees of frost. The River Meurthe is frozen.

WORST IN 40 YEARS.

BRITAIN'S COLDEST SPELL

(British Official Wireless.) (Received 12 noon.)

HUGBY, February 13,

Unusually severe frost continued over the whole of Britain yesterday. In London it was the coldest day since 1008, and it is over 40 years since such cold has been experienced in February. Last night the minimum temperature in London was 21 degrees Fahrenheit, but much lower readings were registered in t'ne suburbs and provinces, while in .Scotland and Wales the cold was again intense.

The bitter east wind, however, moderated. Heavy snowfalls in Scotland and Wales have greatly hindered communications to London, and the Glasgow express was delayed owing to the freezing of water in the railway troughs. On arrival the ice which had collected between the coaches, had to be broken through before they could be separated.

Two trains were caught in a snowdrift near Stranraer and were imprisoned throughout yesterday, but have now been released as the result of work by snow ploughs and an engine of 120 tons.

At Penygroes, near Carnarvon, a passenger train was snowed up throughout Monday night. Frozen points delayed rail traffic. In many parts of the country road traffic is much more seriously disorganised and inhabitants state that the conditions near Stranraer arc even worse than during the great blizzard of lS9r>. Buses and about 100 motor cars are snowed up in the neighbourhood.

In South Wales many motor bus services have also been suspended, and numerous accidents, due to skids on icebound roads, occurred yesterday, while scores of vehicles are abandoned in enowdrifts.

Severe frosts continued to-day in the British Isles, thermometer readings being even lower than yesterday. The coldest place appears to be Eoss, on the River Wye, in Herefordshire, where the thermometer showed a ground temperature of six degrees below zero Fahrenheit, or 38 degrees of frost.

. * ce has begun to form on the Thames in the higher reaches. Other rivers are also becoming frozen, while canals, lakes and ponds generally are ice-bound.

Householders are finding their chief discomfort in tho freezing of waterpipes. _ This was a subject of general complaint to-day all over London. The Metropolitan Water Board are fixin« stand pipes in streets and housewives come with buckets and kettles and obtain water from the main. Thousands <if frozen pipes are bursting and causing damage. °