BLIZZARD IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 994, 20 March 1891, Page 28

BLIZZARD IN ENGLAND.

B i Electric Telegraph. Copyright, DISASTROUS" RESULTS. TRAINS EMBEDDED IN THE SNOW. LOSS OF LIFE. (per press association.) London, March 9. There has been a heavy fall of snow in the northern part of Kent, and the working of the telegraph and railway lines has been seriously interfered with. At Faversham, opposite the Isle of Sheppey, a train was snowed up all one night. March 10. The South Eastern Counties have suffered severely from the blizzard. The snowfall was general throughout England, and was remarkably heavy. In some parts the snowdrifts were twenty feet deep. The Flying Dutchman was snowbound at Tiverton, in Devon, and many mail trains in various parts of England were completely embedded in snow drifts. The blizzard is still raging. Twenty lives have been lost, and various casualties are reported. Several people have been frozen to death. London, March 12. Numerous additional deaths are reported by sea and land, and the effects of the snow blizzard are being severely felt by certain classes of the population. Owing to the severity of the weather all work in the mines in Rhondda Valley, Wales, has been stopped, throwing 25,000 people out of employment. Railway communication between London and Exeter, which was interrupted owing to the line being blocked by snowdrifts, has been restored. London, March 13. The severe weather which has been experienced during the past few days still continues, and shows no signs of abating. The Southern counties have suffered the most from tho effects of the snow storms, and the counties of Devon and Cornwall have been completety isolated for several days.

The snowfall is the heaviest known for fifty years. r Railway and telegraph communication is interrupted in all directions, and work on many of the lines has been suspended altogether. Trains which left railway stations on Monday night, and which encountered the full force of the storm, are still buried in the snowdrifts. The passengers were rescued from the carriages and taken to the adjacent villages, where they are being provided with food and shelter until they are able to resume their journeys. Six trains are buried between Exeter and Plymouth. Near Dartmoor, in Devonshire, a train was embedded in a snow drift for two days. During that time the passengers were without food, and the work of rescuing them could only be carried on with great difficulty. When reached they were in a pitiable condition. The weather off the coast is very heavy, and numerous shipping casualties are reported. The Liverpool barque Dryad went ashore on Start Point and became a total wreck. Twenty-four of those on board were drowned. The ship Calcutta was wrecked while entering Plymouth Haven, and 18 of her officers and crew were lost. The pipes which supply Plymouth with water became choked with snow, which froze hard, and 500 soldiers and navvies are now engaged in clearing them. Over one hundred Heaths by land and sea have already been recorded, and the number is increasing every day. The storm is raging with renewed vigor in the Wbstern Counties. One hundred and sixty navvies are clearing snow from the Railway Station at Plymouth. The American ship Servia is missing, and it is supposed that she has been disabled, and i 3 drifting about in the Channel. London, March 14. Four vessels have been wrecked_off the Start and 53 persons drowned. Fourteen vessels, including several large steamers, have been totally lost or severely damaged on the coasts of Devon and Cornwall. The storm has now ceased. The express which left Paddington Station on Monday did not arrive at Plymouth till Friday night. A hundred passengers were rescued near Okehampton, after being buried in a snowdrift for 24 hours. The American ship Servia is safe.