WORST SNOWFALL FOR YEARS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22431, 18 June 1938, Page 14

WORST SNOWFALL FOR YEARS

ATTEMPTS TO RESCUE SHEEP APPEAL ISSUED TO MOTORISTS - USE OF ROADS IN MACKENZIE COUNTRY [THE PRESS Special Service.] GERALDINE, June 17. The worst snowfall for nine years threatens the Mackenzie Country with an exceptionally cold winter. Runholders are all busy “snowraking” in an effort to bring their sheep to safe ground nearer the homesteads, and thousands of sheep will be brought down the country to safer winter pastures during the next few days. Because of this likely exodus of sheep which will keep the Mackenzie roads busy for a time, the Mackenzie County Engineer (Mr J. F. D. Jeune) has issued an appeal to motorists to make things as easy as possible for the drovers, who will be working under very trying conditions. “Motorists are advised that unless'it is essential to use up-country roads it would be better for their own purposes and for the care of the stock if such trips are left till later,” states Mr Jeune’s appeal. “The snow will be in the Mackenzie all the winter.”

Temperatures Below Zero “Motorists should remember when encountering mobs of sheep that these animals have been dogged and harried for days and nights through temperatures actually below zero. The feelings and tempers of the men with the sheep are in keepiftg with the temperature. Motorists are advised to pull their cars into the snowbank at the road side, to stop their engines, and not to restart them until the sheep are past.” The appeal warns motorists not to expect the council’s heavy trucks and snow-ploughs to pull off the road to let them pass. “If they pull off and get bogged or go over the bank, you cannot pull them out,” states the appeal, “but if you pull off a bit and let them past, and you get stuck, the council unit can pull you out." Runholders are asked in the appeal to co-operate with the Mackenzie County office, with a view to advising the days they will be on the road. They are advised to get out quickly, because the roads will be worse through the drifts when the wind rises.

Thirty 'degrees of frost were reported from Tekapo this morning. “The plant is working day and night to clear the roads throughout the country,” Mr Jeune told a representative of “The Press” to-day. The main roads were clear and the Lilybank road was being opened. Ihe Godley Peaks road would then be tackled.

“Exceptionally Difficult” Snow clearing had been exceptionally difficult this year because of the soft nature of the snow. The staff was working under exposed and trying conditions. If a snow plough operator touched the ironwork ,of his plough he risked blistering his hands, the temperatures were so cold. A number of the runholders would bring their sheep downcountry to winter, he said. A representative of “The Press spoke by telephone to “Braemar” in the heart of the Mackenzie Country to-day. It was learned that snow ranged in depth in that area from lour inches to two feet, with drifts up to five feet deep. It was the first time for years, the reporter was told, that school children in that locality had not been able to attend school because of the snow. The snowplough from the station had met the county plough and the road was now clear, but the drifts * were so high in some places that they reached the tops of the fences, and it was difficult to open gates. All the men folk in the locality were busily engaged in snowraking to bring the sheep out, but no heavy loss of sheep was expected, the thawing time being more dangerous than the present. Watching For a Thaw The number of sheep that will be brought down from the back country will depend on the weather in the next few days. Mr T. D. Burnett, M.P., a well known Mackenzie rtinholder, said this evening that the number would be larger if there was no thaw. The runholders would have been much more ready to send their young sheep downcountry earlier than this if it had not been for the worm menace, which is particularly bad in South Canterbury this year. In many cases, he said, runholders were prepared to take the risk of snow rather than face the more certain risk of the deadly worm menace, which has assumed most serious proportions during the last 12 months. Many runholders have brought their own tractors into use to open up tracks to the snow camps where the sheep gather in mobs when the snow is falling, A feature of the snow conditions in the Mackenzie were the deep drifts. Frost recordings in the Geraldine County to-day include 24 degrees at Coal Hill, and 14 degrees at Mount Harper, in the Rangitata Gorge. At Geraldine, 10& degrees were recorded: