THE OTAGO SNOWSTORMS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 27, 1 August 1923, Page 5

THE OTAGO SNOWSTORMS

-' The worst snowstorm I have known in my fifty-one years' residence in Centra' Otago," said ;i prominent runholder to an " Otego Daily Times " reporter.' The runholder went oh to explain that three snowstorms stood but in 'bold relief during this period. One was in 1895, th 0 other hi 1918, and the 1923 visitation. The fall of inovf on this occasion was. unusually heavy, but it was the severe frosts which accompanied and succeeded it that accentuated the evil. In Arrbwtown, for. example, show was still 12 inches' in depth, and the frost recorded on at least' two occasions was from one, to three points belojv zero. Animal life suffered sevetely as a consequence, and hundreds of fowls succumbed. This was more particularly the case on tlie Crown Terrace. ,T6 give an idea of the intensity of the frost, it niay.be mentioned that milk was frozen into a solid block within an hour or two after having been 'drawn from the cow. As regards sheep losses,. it is difficult even yet to.arrive a t anything like a definite idea of what they .will total. . One man whose, losses in 1918 totalled £10,000, estimates that he will be quite satisfied if he escapes -with a loss of £15.000 on this occasion. A manager of a large property, in the Lakes district states that he has. 4000 hoggets snowed in, and lie does not expect to rescue on e of that number. ll c had . been twenty-eight years on the property, and he considers if- the worst winter he has ever experienced. What has made the position even worse is the absence of . water. Many shcepowners have gone to considerable expense in the matter of securing. hay, for th 0 stock, but the shortage,of 'drinking water has been, .responsible for a heavy mortality. As far as can be ascertained, sonic runhblders have boon partially successful in rescue operation's, but, notwithstanding this', tha Ibises are bound to. be heavy.