COLD SNAP

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 21 December 1927, Page 5

COLD SNAP

ENGLAND SNOWBOUND. TRAFFIC IMPEDED. MANY DEATHS IN FRANCE. BY CABLE-PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. LONDON, Dec. 20. Indications are that England’s present snow and frost bound condition will establisn a record over many years. Heavy falls continue in most places, and there are instances of railway points being fiozen up, hindering trafuo. Road traffic has- also been seriously impeded, and ice breakers have been used for the first time for years on many London canals, which are covered to a depth of three or four inches. An early morning fire at Michelham Priory, an eleventh century building now used as a private residence, provided the weirdest spectacle. The water from the hoses formed icicles on the- building, the firemen’s wet uniforms froze stiff, and the engines had to cease pumping periodically owing to the intakes freezing. In Paris the intensity of the cold is increasing, and numbers of deaths as a result of the cold are reported in France, including four in Paris. Some 250 out of 1000 telegraph lihes in Paris snapped. Many of the smaller rivers in France are frozen, and blocks of ice are appearing in the Seine. The excessive cold also caused iron bridges to contract, so that wooden paving blocks were forced out, and as a result several bridges are impassable. The strangest scenes were witnessed in the Parisian underworld. The Prefect- of Police- issued instructions that tramns- and vagabonds should be rounded up and brought during the night to the police stations, where they were served with soup and coffee, instead of being charged as outcasts. The wrecks of humanity were most reluctant to obey, but finally, overjoyed at the reception they received from their old-time enemies, some- burst into tears at the unexpected hospitality.