DRY SPELL AFFECTS COAST.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 940, 9 December 1933, Page 9

DRY SPELL AFFECTS COAST.

No Water Available for Mining Plants Near Reefton. PROSPECTORS CALL A HALT. THE WEST COAST, usually regarded as a land of abundant rain, verdant bush and surging rivers, is suffering from the prolonged dry spell. Conditions are particularly bad at Reefton, where an unprecedented drought is being experienced. Mining operations in the district are virtually at a standstill. No water is available for driving the battery at the Big River Gold Mines, Ltd. Old residents state that they have not seen conditions like the present for many years. Prospectors have had to call a halt in operations. There has been only one light shower in the last month or more. The temperature in the shade to-day was 88. At Greymouth, conditions have been exceptionally dry, and the pressure is low on the higher levels, but no restrictions as yet have been placed on the use of water.

Various parts of Canterbury are also seriously affected by the dry spell. “ Some residents are chary even of having a bath,” stated a report from Kaikoura, where tanks and pumps are the only source of supply. The tanks are low and houses with one tank only have almost reached the end of their resources. There have been no cases yet, however, where water has had to be carted.

No restrictions have been placed on the water used at Rangiora, but householders have been asked to use their discretion, particularly in the watering of lawns. The Borough Council has issued a warning that unless greater

care is exercised in some cases it will be forced to install meters. In the City Area.

Riccarton and Fendalton are the most affected in the city area and many electric pumps are being installed and wells lowered. The position in Heathcote is satisfactory and no shortage is anticipated. The Heathcote County Council, however, has decided to ask residents of the Heathcote Valley and Horotane to curtail their use of water as their supplies are drawn from Lyttelton, which has ordered that no water be used for gardens until further notice. Apart from these two districts the Heathcote County supply is good.