LONDON’S CHRISTMAS FOG

Evening Star, Issue 12399, 12 January 1905, Page 8

LONDON’S CHRISTMAS FOG

[Per Ventura at Auckland.]

A despatch from London, dated December 23, states:—There is as yet no sign of the lifting of tho fog which envelopes the kingdom. The absence of wind throughout Great' Britain is almost unprecedented, and meteorologists do not expect any change in the conditions for another twenty-four hours. Considering the almost insuperable difficulties attending locomotion of any' form, the number of fatal accidents have been remarkably small. Congestion and suspension of business are very general so far as London is concerned. Tube railways are the only concerns benefiting, and their daily traffic is reaching record figures. The places of amusement are almost deserted, and shopkeepers are loudly lamenting the absence of usual Christmas customers, instead of which big stores are inundated with orders by post, which cannot be executed owing to the complete dislocation of all carrying business. Railroad traffic, both for long and short distances, is almost paralysed, a condition resembling chaos prevails in the postal service, and with the continued accumulation of Christmas parcels and letter traffic it is quite impossible to preserve even a semblance of punctuality. All railway trains are many hours late, and many trains between London and the suburbs ocqppy a couple of hours in making a distance of eight miles. Mail boats hr all direct ona are similarly - disorganised, while the Oceanic and Saxonia have been unable to reach landings at Liverpool. The Cedric and Pretoria, outward bound, were both delayed, and the Minnehaha was waiting at the mouth of the Thames, unable to proceed. Only two vessels entered the port of London on December 22—a condition of affairs such as has not occurred for twenty years. The month of the river is crammed with vessels loaded with perishable foodstulib of all descriptions. Tinstreets of London present remarkable scenes. Nothing is visible excepting torch s and the occasional flare of big creo sote lights, which the authorities are beginning to employ to assist traffic. Phantom vo oes mingle with the increasing whistling of the omnibus and the tramway drivers, while at points like Trafalgar square and Hyde Park corners ore agglomerations of vehicles of every description held up by policemen, and close locked for hours. Nearly everybody is suffering from headache, which the doctors attribute to the fog- '