THE HEAT WAVE.

Evening Star, Issue 9915, 29 January 1896, Page 2

THE HEAT WAVE.

[Per Press Association.]

SYDNEY, January 28. The Government have decided to grant free railway passes to sufferers from the excessive heat in the inlaud districts who are unable to afford the expense of getting to cooler regions.

MORE DEATHS RECORDED.

SYDNEY, Jandary 29.

The beat is again intense in the AYestern district. Four more deaths aro reported at Bourko and three at WiU oannja.

BRISBANE, January 29.

During the month twenty-three deaths were recorded at Margomindah, tho majority of them being due to tho heat.

Mr Russell, the New South Wales Government Astronomer, says that the primary cause is the heating of the interior plains by the sun shining in a clear atmosphere. Under such circumstauces the temperature of the soil frequently rises" to 140deg. Sir John Herschell mentions that in some experiments of his own at the Cape of Good Hope ho had known the temperature of the soil to rise to 159deg, and Mr Russell had himself known the tempcraturo to rise to 140Jeg. It is not surprising, therefore, that the wind, blowing over a great surface so heated, should become .unpleasantly hot. As an illustration of the effect of wind on the temperature blowing over such a surface, it may be mentioned that tho temperature of the noi'-eastcr on Sunday, January 12, was only 86.1, against the temperature on Monday of 108 5. The sea-breeze brought in the sea temperature on Sunday, and the land breeze brought in tho temperature of the vast plains of the interior.