DUSTY CHRISTCHURCH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14585, 23 January 1911, Page 6

DUSTY CHRISTCHURCH.

WATERCARTS USELESS.

[BY TELEGRAPH.— PRESS association.]

Christchurch, Saturday. According to Mr. A. D. Dobson, the city surveyor, no water-carts in the world would have been able to deal with the dust nuisance which raged through the streets of Christenurch yesterday. He returned to the city yesterday from a visit to Australia, and. ho states that as the steamer came towards Lyttelton early in the morning, he could see an immense cloud of dust 10,000£fc high extending over the Canterbury Plains and settling on the hills of Banks Peninsula. The particles made their presence felt even on board the steamer, and the sun in the cast shone against the duet-cloud, giving it the appearance of* a peculiar gray haze. He states that the Waimakariri is the source of this immense cloud of dust that comes with the hot north-west winds. From the city surveyor's point of view, indeed, the great river is a dust bed four; miles wide and 30 mi lee longin other words it is 100 square miles of dust producing country lying right in the route of the northwester, he believes that the best streetwatering scheme that could be devised would be futile in attempting to deal adequately with the nuisance. ' "Christchurch is so situated," he says, "that it must always be one of the dustiest places in the Southern Hemisphere." This recent visitto Sydney has confirmed his opinion that apart from the wood-blocked streets in the centre of the city, the streets of Christchurch arc superior to those of the Australian metropolis. "People there, however," ho remarked, "don't trouble as much as people do here."