FLOODS IN ENGLAND

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 4 January 1928, Page 5

FLOODS IN ENGLAND

SNOWDRIFTS MELTING. GREAT SKATING CARNIVAL. CONTEST FOR. CHAMPIONSHIP. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. LONDON; Jan. 1.

A general thaw set in throughout England for the New Year after the 'ountry had been snowbound for a week. Experts are unable to say when the deepest drifts will melt; it may not he for weeks. Many homes are in danger of destruction owing to the movement of tons of snow.

Up to to-night numerous villages were still cut off. Skiing parties visited one or two hamlets in Kent, and found the inhabitants on the verge of starvation. Tears came- into their eyes when they received relief provisions. It is feared that serious floods will result in some districts, as the rivers are dangerously swollen. Several aeroplanes delivered food to | villagers and others who were prevented from obtaining it by the dense fog. The greatest skating carnival held for many years was held at Lingey Fen, Cambridgeshire, where there were 5000 people on the ice for the skaters’ competition for the amateur championship and the the King’s Cup. The weather for the first time since 1912 permitted the competition to lie held. Dix, of Hamids, the holder, aged 50, who first won the championship 33 years' ago. lost to Horn, of Upwell, aged 22. Twenty degrees of frost during the night made the ice safe for the multitude. There was a great demand on the open air buffet for hot drinks, skaters’ own supplies having ' become frozen in bottles. Bookmakers shouted the odds as the 27 competitors skated in heats. Girls, in plus fours, with brightly coloured jumpers, introduced a carnival spirit which was increased by the carrying of balloons as hundreds of skaters paced tlm competitors. The Prince of Wales, who was spending the week-end at Melton Mowbray, bought a pair of skates yesterday and at noon joined the throng of skaters on the lake in Stapleford Park, proving himself quite an expert on the ice. Half England is awash with floods, as following the thaw many rivers i burst their banks. Disappearing, snowdrifts have revealed the bodies of a missing miner and a. farmer. j