SYDNEY SHIVERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23075, 28 June 1938, Page 11

SYDNEY SHIVERS

ANTARCTIC COLD ; ALL CAPITALS AFFECTED GRIP ON HALF AUSTRALIA [from our own correspondent] SYDNEY. June 24 For several days this week the southern half of Australia was in the grip of unusually severe cold. This succeeded, in Sydney at least, several weeks oi weather that, for late autumn and early winter, had been mild, and the change compelled people of this city to adopt uncommon methods to become and keep warm. Sydney was the coldest of the six capitals on Monday and Tuesday, the VAntarctic depression which caused the seeming to reach the depth of its «nsitv at this latitude. On Monday th« temperature fell to the lowest point registered in June for two years. It was even colder on Tuesday morning, when thq 'tuinimum temperature, 38.6 degrees, wad she lowest for five years, and was only u'-9 degrees above the lowest registered Vfoi- all time —on June 22, 1932. city stores reported a sharp increa. W La sales of winter clothing. Hot water ty&t'les were in demand; milk bars served not drinks, and ice cream sales fell to ze.ro. Electricity consumption showed aVls P er cent increase over the figures fcfrthe corresponding days of last yrsar. TtJotels reported doubled sales of spirits, rum. From ot capitals came similar reports of cc »ld, although Sydney, in the grip of from the southern Alps, suffered morel severely than Melbourne, 500 miles nds u-er the Antarctic. In inland districts of New South Wales the coldV was even more intense than in Sydney At Mount Kosciusko and Kiandra ((Australia's bleakest town) it was onl.V\ natural that low temperatures but it was rare for towns on the tablelands, lower than the Alps, to ,n3Cord such temperatures as 17 Braidwood did on TW-sday. It was even more \are to find Cobar, in the western divis *on of the State, reporting a reading of 24 degrees.