RAIN STILL NEEDED

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 116, 17 April 1939, Page 6

RAIN STILL NEEDED

LITTLE RELIEF GIVEN. RESERVOIR LEVEL FALLING Long deferred hopes that the Manawatu district would enjoy a beneficial fail of rain were raised on Saturday alternoon, when, out of an overcast sky, a light shower was experienced. The general situation along the West Coast tended to raise similar hopes in other areas as showers fell, but it is reported that insufficient was obtained to benefit gardens and pastures. Another shower fell in the early hours of this morning.

Eclipsing the previous record of 55iin below the by-pass, the water level at the city’s reservoir at Tiritea this morning gave a reading of 621in' below. The full has been steady and the only rainfall registered at 'liritea was ,06in on Saturday night. Last night, however, the dropping of tho height of the water in the datn was arrested slightly, indicating that more than a mere passing shower had 1 alien on the higher levels of the watershed. The forecast of the Meteorological Office this morning was for cloudy to overcast conditions with “rain at times in districts with a westerly aspect, more especially of the South Island and also in Otago and Southland. Elsewhere little rain likely.” It would seem, in spite of the absence of a bright sun, that a substantial rainfall is as far off as ever.

In Wanganui, on Saturday, it is reported, there were two heavy locai showers, but they were negligible compared with the needs of the district, which has not had rain for 35 days. Prior to Saturday no _ rain had fallen in Wanganui since March 11; there is an acute shortage of water in the suburban areas and tlie country districts for household purposes, and carting has become a daily routine.

Milk supplies at the dairy factories have been reduced in some cases to nearly half that of the corresponding period last year. Dairy farmers are anxious over the prospects for winter feed, which do not appear bright, and some are already drawing on reserve stocks of hay. The Wanganui River in the upper reaches is exceptionally low. and navigation l>v smaller boats from Pipiriki is being carried on with extreme difficulty. SERIOUS WATER SHORTAGE.

In the rural areas of Southern Hawke’s Bay, the shortage of water, especially lor household use, has assumed serious proportions. In the To Rehunga area household water js being supplied by dairy factories in the cans as they are returned. • Household washing is brought into Dannevirke, and the town supply is affording baths for many countrv people. The cost to tho district- of tlie fall in dairy production alone, taken from factory returns, is estimated at £20,000. In the Wairarapa there lias still been no rainfall.