SYDNEY SCENE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 187, 9 August 1941, Page 5

SYDNEY SCENE

REAL WATER CRISIS SEVEN YEARS' DROUGHT (0.C.) SYDNEY, August 6.J Sydney, with one of the highest! annual rainfalls of any big capital,! and in proportion to population the largest water storage system of any big metropolis—seven years' supply without rain—is now facing a real water crisis because the unpreceidented drought on the catchment jareas has now "asted seven years. Restrictions on the use of hoses and

such like have forced consumptiondown to 60,000,000 gallons a day, Dutj total storage has fallen so much that unless there is heavy rain in the, next 16 weeks the danger point of; 120,000,000,000 gallons will be 1 reached. I

In that event drastic rstrictionsj will have to ue enforced. ' It is physically impossible for the Water] Board to seal all but one tap in every! home in the metropolitan area, andj it would be almost as difficult to cutj off domestic supplies and put one or; ■two taps in the streets. The aim |would be to reduce domestic consumption to 20 gallons per family) I per day instead of the present 40: gallons, which is less than is normally used. For a long time the board has been appealing to people to take showers instead of baths, which use 25 to 30 gallons, and to! flush their closets only when neces-! sary. Each flushing takes three] gallons, and there are 400,000 lavajtories in the Sydney area. Becausei Utile Water Board has been starved' !of loan money so long and thereforei jur.able to hurry the building of the! I Warragamba dam, it lost 3 c.000,000,-1 Ijooo gallons of water in the last rain. I'One member of the board said this i was a crime. | i' 1 Fiancee's Glory Box i In an adjourned case, Bruce Ashworth, 22. grocer, was alleged to have stolen his ex-fiancee's glory, I box after she had broken off her; I engagement. In a letter to the girl's: •mother, defendant was alleged to; have admitted writing: "Ruth lost; i her love for me long before she let; I;us know. She has played me for a' ; sucker, and I was too much in love jwith her to wake up. Every penny ■I had I put into that giory box, hop-! ling to be a very happy man with a :very happy woman. I worshipped; ijher in my own funny way. The things will be of no use to me, but jl would rather burn them or serve! itime than let her get her eyes on | them ever again, or let her have them back to furnish another man's jhome." I Friendship Club Racket I Legislation to control "friendship ! clubs" is expected to follow police (investigations into their activities. ! It is alleged that most of these clubs jare in effect onlj- picking-up places ifor undesirables and means of enabling the proprietresses to fleece,; land sometimes to blackmail, their; [victims. The clubs obtain their vie-!

Tims by advertisements of imaginaryi men and women who are said V be| lonely and seeking »irtners —and| always seem to be well endowed! with personal attractions and gjjjd positions and »e newspaper beg?n Ivertisements have disappeared, but] jthe clubs are still carrying on by jother methods. j | One woman is- said to have comI plained to the police that after havjing paid a club fee of £2 2/ she! jagreed to pay £10 10/ if she obtained! jan introduction which led to marriage. When she refused to pa» out.l |after having met "a suitable friend,"! jthe club proprietress threatened to! tell her friends that she had gone to the club in search of a marriage 'partner, so she paid out. Soon after I she received a demand for another j£lo 10/. i Seven-month Search Ends The body of a child of 21, Desmondi iClarke, who disappeared from his jhome last Christmas Day morning, iwas found on Tuesday in a chalk pit jnear Bugaldie, which is not far from iDubbo. For a month after the child's disappearance an intense search was carried on through dense scrub; country by a force of 300 police andj jcivilians, including a party of 75 1 • horsemen. Constable Denholm, ofj Sydney, police dog trainer, also took; ' part in the hunt along with the' ■ famous police bloodhound Disraeli.' ;but all efforts to trace the child! The body was found acci-{ >|dentally by a black tracker who had, :;begun his holiday leave, but had 1 j taken two cadet trackers to the, •scene of the search to show them: • what had been done and leave themi ito gain some experience in tracking.] '! One of the most tireless searchers' ■;for the child was his grandmother.! l jMrs. J. Tattersall, who, although 75j iyears of age, after a day in the isaddle frequently continued to! search by herself on foot at night.