YELLOW RAIN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3101, 20 August 1913, Page 3

YELLOW RAIN.

SHOWER AT WEELIXOTO.V. (From Our Owx C'oiue.spon'dext.) \VJ3I.UXCTOX, August 12. There was a shower of rain—or, rather, what people thought was rain—at Karori yesterday,—hut to everyone’s surprise and the alarm of not a few the rain left a yellow deposit on the roads, in tho paddocks, gardens, and on the roofs. Some concluded that there had been “ a Irg burst-up ” somewhere, and that the deposit was sulphur dust brought down by the rain. Others were inclined to believe that tho deposit was “ the pollen of the pine ” that Kipling sings of. As the stuff was mixed with mud and earth by the time anyone sought to gather a sample, only an analysis can determine what it is. One Karori resident gives it as his belief that the deposit was sulphur, and that while it was falling ho perceived a gaseous smell “like burning vanish,’’ which convinced him that there must have been a disturbance somewhere. At the time of the occurrence a light north-westerly breeze was blowing. It is thought that the yellow substance referred to is pollen of some kind most probably that of tho wattle, which is in full bloom at present. A few days ago, in Now Plymouth, it was thought that there had been a fall of sulphur dust, but on examination it proved to bo wattle pollen. Professor Eastcrfield states that in the early spring the Canadian lakes are sometimes almost covered with yellow pollen from the various trees.