CITY HEAT WAVE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 26, 1 February 1937, Page 5

CITY HEAT WAVE.

SLEEPLESS NIGHTS.

MEN AND WOMEN'S DRESS.

OLD CONTROVERSY REVIVED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SVDXEY, January 25. By all accounts the last week was, climatically considered, one of the most! unpleasant that Sydney has experienced for many years. What troubled peoplej was, as the Americans are fond of say-j ing, "not the heat, but the humidity .'"I The eastern half of Australia has been' subjected to a heat wave which—though it has not been so overwhelming here as in Queensland, where several deaths have been reported from heat apoplexy and the sleepless citizens of Brisbane and other towns left their beds and watered their gardens or mowed their lawns —has at least had the effect of reducing large numbers of people in Sydney to great physical discomfort and unhappiness, and has induced them to wonder in what possible way the horrors of a typically Australian summer may best l»e mitigated.

For 30 hours—from 9 a.m. on Monday (January 18) to 3 p.m. on Tuesday— the thermometer did not drop below 76 degrees, and Monday night wae the hottest recorded since March, 1915. The temperature did not actually rise to the 100 mark—though "out West" at Bourke and beyond the readings ranged as high as 110. But 98 degrees—our maximum for the week—means oppressive heat if the atmosphere is damp, and the most remarkable feature of this visitation has [been the high humiditr.

A Saturated Atmosphere.

Our State meteorologist has followed hie laudable practice of supplying us with elaborate statistics which record our sufferings, and, among other interesting facts, has mentioned that during the height of the heat wave there were about 9 grains of water in each cubic foot of air above the city. Another" even more impressive way of putting this is

to say that "at the peak of ! humidity there would be 24 pints of water in a room 15ft bv 15ft bv 10ft."

If these figures carry no conviction, I can only assure my readers that when humidity there would be 2J pints of 'makes sleep almost impossible, it renders every form of work a painful effort, and it reduces most people to a state of mind in which they are inclined to regard life as intolerable.

Naturally, under such circumstances.! the question of clothing has played an important part in everybody's thoughts and sensations, and once more the newspapers have been making play with the ceaselessly reiterated question—why do we not dress to suit the weather* Of jeourse, men are infinitely more open to on this subject than women.

Comparison Against Hen.

Various estimates published here during the past week show that the average man burdens himself with clothing, which, including boots, weighs on the average at least 7Jll>. while the«average woman manages to be both attractive and comfortable with a set of habiliments weighing only 2Mb. The contrast is rather disturbing to masculine vanity.; |and. as usual, the publication of these ! figures has been followed by an outcry I from many quarters in favour of- the, imore rational masculine attire for sum-, ! mer. The men of Sydney have received a, friendly lead in this respect from the town of Moree—an "out west*' township where the heat often registers "100 in. the shade." These courageous reformers! have fixed a day on which all the; 1.500 men in the township are to appear in khaki shorts and an open necked shirt, and they call upon the .Sydneyites to follow them. The men of Sydney, being possibly more familiar with shorts and the appalling revelations that they often inflict upon us, have not responded to the call with any ent.huJsiasm. But in reply to the sartorial J inquiries of the people who want to know why men persist in inflicting so much misery upon themselves by wearing heavy clothes, a few of the sufferers have hazarded a reply. They point out that, as they believe, all men would prefer to wear light flannels or Palm Beach suits in place of heavy and suffocating tweeds and worsteds, if in the first place they could afford t<i buy them, and in the second place the\ could afford to keep them clean.