“SPRING IS HERE”

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3478, 14 October 1926, Page 8

“SPRING IS HERE”

EARLY PLANTS DAMAGED BY FROST. Although Palmerston North has escaped tho unseasonable snowfalls that have been experienced in many other parts of the Dominion, the temperature has been low enough to justify the prediction that a fall was due, although the nearest point at which snow was actually in evidence was in the Ashhurst district. Early plants and flowers suffered very badly from tho heavy frost that descended on Tuesday night and the fond hopes of several weeks have been ruthlessly uprooted. The new potato crops have been heavily affected and these are bound to be in short supply. Nurserymen and market gardeners will be hit hard by tho unseasonable visitation. Last, evening the air still had a bitter tang, but there is promise of bright sunshine to-day again. SNOW AND FREEZING SOUTHERLIES. EMPIRE .CITY’S EXPERIENCES. So far as Wellington is concerned tho seasons have been completely transformed. After the mildest winter on record, we are now in deep winter instead of spring. Following tho unprecedented fall of snow last month and tho other unseasonable weather, it has been raining for the last 15 days and this week has been bitterly cold, far more so than at any lime in the regular winter. For three days a freezing southerly has prevailed, accompanied at intervals by showers of hail. Yesterday morning some of the hills near the city were showing white cops again, and appar-

ently there is more to come. One effect of tho rain in the country districts is to remove the fears of a shortage of food, but even this is not unattended by drawbacks. During tho dry winter cattle in some places got into very poor condition. The sudden appearance of lush feed was too much for them and a number have died of overfeeding. One settler in the Wairarapa lost the whole of his cows to tho number of GO and many oilier losses are reported. Frequent showers of snow fell in the Wairarapa on Tuesday night, and yesterday morning tiro ground was quite white for a time, but the rain squalls and bursts of sunshine dispersed the snow. Tho hills on both sides of the valley were white mantled down to the lowest foothills. The weather appears to have broken after five days of almost continuous rain. The rivers are running high but no damage has been reported. The heaviest fall of snow for years mantled the Poverty Bay hills yesterday morning, establishing a record in some parts for a late fall.