COOLER WEATHER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 17 January 1939, Page 5

COOLER WEATHER

CONDITIONS IN NEW SOUTH WALES SEVEN MORE DEATHS REPORTED SYDNEY, 16th January. Comparatively cool weather has prevailed all along the seaboard of New South Wales since Saturday evening, affording much-needed relief. But for this change, the death roll would undoubtedly have been much greater. Temperatures along the coast are now back to 66 degrees. A light rain has fallen all to-day, and shows signs of continuing, according to weather bureau forecasts. Inland temperatures, however, remain high, especially in the far west. Seven more deaths (making a total of 114 in one week) since yesterday have occurred from the heat, four at Broken Hill, two at Cobar, and one at Bourke. Rain is reported to be falling in several parts of the State, chiefly in the south-east, where it will be most welcome.

The main topic of conversation in the city to-day was Saturday’s fierce furnace-like heat, from which there was no escape, even indoors, where it was impossible to find a cool spot. Women and children, it is reported, became hysterical. Thirsts were unquenchable, and milk and ice supplies gave out early in the afternoon. Mothers despaired of their babies’ lives. Householders, without exception, speak of Saturday as the worst day of their careers. They think the Victorian and southern bush-fires were mainly responsible for the sudden burst of inordinate heat. Cyril Hayward, aged 39, was to-day sentenced to three months’ imprisonment. at the Goulburn Court, for failing to extinguish an open fire after boiling a billy, resulting in a disastrous bush fire which destroyed the township of Penrose.

VIEWED FROM THE AIR

RIVER OF FLAME THROUGH BUSH FLIGHT BY NEW ZEALANDER fUuited Press Association 1 AUCKLAND, 16th January. “Baked apples on a tree in an orchard near Melbourne gave me an idea of the effects of the bush fires,” said Mr R. E. Murray, Wellington, Army Publicity Officer, who returned by the Awatea after attending a military conference in Melbourne. “Flying at 10,000 feet in a Douglas machine of Australian National Airways it was shocking to see the ruined and blackened country down below and to know that there were people there, specially children,” Mr Murray continued, in describing hi impressions of the fires as viewed from the air. “We were flying over fire country for hundreds of miles, -’eople in New Zealand have no conception of the extent of the fires. “When I left Melbourne it was covered by haze and visibility was extremely poor. Out at Essendon aerodrome there was a terrific smell of smoke and, perhaps as a result of the exceptional conditions, the machine had difficulty in getting away. “Our aeroplane flew right across the fires. It was impossible to see much in Victoria because of the snioke which covered the earth but over New South Wales the fire was like a river of flame through the bush. From the air the land looked baked.” As night fell and the monoplane continued her journey to Kingsford Smith Aerodrome, Sydney, the five passengers had a better view of the leaping flames below. Mr Murray said that only the actual front over which the flames were advancing was clearly visible and this was represented by a narrow winding line of fire stretching clear across the country. “On the way over from Sydney a friend in Melbourne telephoned me aboard the Awatea and said that the position was desperately serious,” Mr Murray said. “Even last week the heat was terrific. I had never experienced anything like it. Trying to keep cool I got on a cable-car but could stand it for only two blocks. It was cooler in the street.”