Mild North-west Wind Brings Spring To City

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28661, 11 August 1958, Page 8

Mild North-west Wind Brings Spring To City

Spring came to Canterbury during the week-end with a north-westerly wind which reached the plains early on Saturday morning. Temperatures reached the seventies, and many motorists took their families for their first week-end drive since the Budget put the price of petrol up Is a gallon. Some of them, as one traffic officer agreed, were “feeling their spring oats,’* and driving was erratic Many of the roads carried heavy traffic, and there was some bad overtaking by impatient drivers. Speeds were often too high. Hardy Swimmers The beaches drew quite big crowds —Sumner was particularly popular—and many also drove inland. A reliable estimate was not available, but some traffic officers considered that because petrol was dearer many motorists were not going as far as usual This made the city beaches the destination of many.

A few hardy bathers swam during the week-end, but only a few Most of those who reached the coast contented themselves with a walk along the sand or a little trousers-rolled. skirts-up paddling. i About 15 motor-cyclists with leather jackets, black jeans, and young girls as their passengers lined up outside a hotel in Oxford terrace and roared off westwards in fairly orderly fashion, about 2.30 p.m. Some ,of them were later seen at Sumner At New Brighton, a team from the Youth for Christ movement addressed a small crowd from the back of a truck, and loungers

stood around the milk bars nearby. Quite a number of people went to the Botanic Gardens, and cycles were stacked thickly along the fence and footpath at midafternoon. Many more cyclists were on the roads, pushing against the wind, than have been for some weeks. And in gardens in many parts of Christchurch white-eyes, fat and cheeky after a well-fed winter, prepared to depart for northern climates. The official temperatures, recorded at the Harewood weather office, were: Saturday, a maximum of 72 degrees (72.6 deg. is the record for August, in 1947); Sunday, 68.3 degrees. On Friday a frost of 3.7 degrees was recorded at Harewood. So far this month there have been seven frosts. Usually, during August, there are about 19.