CENTRAL COLD

Evening Star, Issue 23048, 29 August 1938, Page 8

CENTRAL COLD

SUNSHINE AND FROSTS INLAND OTAGO'S WINTER Old-timers will remember the Otago Central frosts suffered before the days of electric light and heating, but although these amenities have arrived on the goldfields the cold remains. It is a hardy person who ventures forth in the wee sma 1 hours of the wintry morning lightly clad, for Jack Frost comes out early and retires late in the Central. Snow-capped mountains, bright blue cloudless skies, and warm winter sunshine are legacies of cold, frosty nights. Mist hangs over the lowlands until King Sol is well out of bed, revealing bare white fields, misty reflections in backwaters, and rising to show some mountain range in all its snowy glory throwing the gleaming sunlight on the yellowish-brown fields below.

The reality of the freeze is brought home to night travellers in the high country. In places the gravel thrown to the side of the road is frozen into a solid bank, while wheel tracks are well and truly glazed. Neglect to blanket the radiator is reported to have spelt misfortune for one party, the water freezing while the car was still travelling. What the morning frost means to housewives can be well understood from the experience of one who, before sweeping a workroom, liberally sprinkled the earthen floor with water. Returning some 14 minutes later with the broom, she found the water frozen to ice. And that was at 8 a.in. Low rivers enable fossickers to prospect the crevices for gold, and, despite the biting cold, the lure of sudden riches attracts many. Some parties, on what is believed to be good pay dirt, are busily engaged wheeling the gravel to higher levels, there to be treated when the river rises and the rich bottom is once again covered. This is severe work, as it is often necessary to break the ice each morning and manhandle it away before beginning work on the material below. Residents of Otago Central are proud of their variable climate, but when boasting of it to visitors may or may not depart from the cold truth. Birds that will sing no more have been reported as frozen hard to the fencing wires. A narrator stated as a fact that he had seen sheep whose wool froze to the earth while the sheep lived, awaiting rescue. The tearing of the animals from the ground by the shepherd frequently left tufts of wool, which in sunshine lent the appearance of a snowflaked paddock. The tale is offered for what it is worth, but if nothing else it is an interesting example of natural, as opposed to artificial, refrigeration of mutton.