"AUTUMN IN THE AIR"

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21429, 22 March 1935, Page 20

"AUTUMN IN THE AIR"

SIGNS OF CHANGING SEASON PRACTICAL ASPECTS AND OTHERS Autumn is the season which above ali is either good or bad as thinking may happen to make it. By the common consent of nature, poets, and fashion authorities, spring is a time of gay emergence from cold, uncomfortable wintry imprisonment; summer is warm and pleasant, the appropriate season for holidays; and in winter the most that is expected of the average mortal is that he shall make the best of a bad job. But autumn cannot be summed up so easily; in the last few days it has begun diffidently to apr proach the city—a few leaves have fallen from the trees in Rolleston avenue and in the Botanic Gardens — and there is already a something in ihe air which is a change from summer. This something is not exactly a foretaste of winter, though there are people who regard autumn as a season of approach to frosts, fogs, and attendant human discomforts. It is oerhaps best described by the phrase, heard the other day, "a smell of autumn in the air." Viewed practically, the season has its ovn particular demands on forethought, and a glance at certain shop windows should be sufficient reminder that summer's clothes must be replaced by something a little warmer. So far. not many heavy overcoats and thick scarves have appeared on the streets; but behind the plateglass winter seems to be already here. Autumn, if not winter, has come to chemists' shops and others in the form of a number of sales of hot water bottles—this was accounted for yesterday by the slightly colder nights of the last week or two. More barely practical jrtill, the sweeping of chimneys will no doubt have to be attended to in seme homes.- Chimney sweeping is aimost literally a "black plague" to the housewife, but very necessary if the winter fireside is to bo its cosy and comfortable self. Autumn Morning: Like every other season autumn is meant to bg enjoyed, and the way to enjoy it is certainly not to dwell either on summer past or on winter to come. A melancholy satisfaction may be had from a kind of "falling leaf and fading tree" state of mind, but autumn is not just a dismal farewell to summer. Yesterday morning was warm and sunny; in the streets it might have seemed that it was a summer day. But not far away an occasional leaf was dropping into the river, and a willow here and there showed a just perceptible change of colour. The great masses of green still overhang Rolleston avenue: but the sun picked cut faint shadows or bronze in the deep green folds of the elms. The oaks, which are quicker to take on their own brown autumn colour, showed every gradation from the fresh,, growing leaves to the leaves rusted and curled, near to falling. Along the edge of the street lay the first small heaps of dead leaves; but there was no wind to shake down those which hung on the trees.

In the gardens, more than the colours of leaves made the approach ol autumn perceptible. The air . was warm, yet the chill of the early morning, remembered if not felt, distinguished the warmth as that of the changing season. Here there are more of the trees which lose their leaves early—the limes near the rose garden are splashed with yellow, and the golden ash, the most beautiful tree, perhaps, in the gardens, is all of a colour which its name only poorly suggests. Weather and Temperature The months which are generally accepted to be the autumn months are March, April, and May, and observations at the Magnetic Observatory over a considerable number of years show that there is a definite though gradual drop in mean temperatures from the end of February to the beginning of May. In May and June the temperatures fall more suddenly by about five degrees. By this time it is reasonable to expect a fairly substantial fall, on an average of about three degrees, from the mean temperature of a month ago. (A graph, showing ihe mean weekly temperatures, over a period of 17 years, will be found among the illustrations.) Many people suppose that it is possible to forecast roughly the temperatures and rainfall of one season by reference to the preceding season. Often enough such statements are made as, "We'll be in for it this winter a£ter such a hot summer." But the staff at the observatory, whose business it is to study the moods of the weather, are rather sceptical of such judgments. They are inclined to think that there is a good deal of loose popular talking about that intricate subject, the weather. A reporter was told yester-, day that extensive observations only showed that each season was practically a law unto itself. Shorter Daylight There is still enough daylight to last, out the ordinary working day, bun there will soon be need, for lights in bhops and offices, though the change will be noticed most at the end of Aaril, when the" clocks will be put back half an hour. The 5 o'clock rush jn the city still runs its course m daylight, but the street lights are lit when the streets are alive again with people going to the theatres. The shortening of the day has just begun to be noticeable. In the halflight of the evening, a difficult light for motorists, the streets are not as yet at their busiest. That is to come, when headlamps have a reddish glow in evening logs or wink impertinently against tne frosty light in the west. Such is autumn, in one or two only of half a hundred possible ways or looking at it. Odes have been written to it, women's fashions change for It, and articles are written about it—all uf which should prove that it is a season with a character of its own. But the fact remains that to many people it is a season of regrets and of forebodings of reluctant rising on frosty mornings. These would be well advised to take a walk in the gardens •on a fine autumn day, which might make them forget to buy that hot water bottle.