BITTER WINTER.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 21 December 1927, Page 5

BITTER WINTER.

EUROPEAN VISITATION MANY DEATHS .REPORTED. dress Association-Electric Telegraph-Copyright LONDON, Tuesday. Indications arc that England’s present snow and frost-bound condition will establish a record over many years, heavy falls of snow continuing in most places. There are instances of railway points being frozen up, hindering traffic. Road traffic is seriously impeded. Ice-breakers are being used for the first time for many years on many London canals, which are covered to a depth of three or four inches. Early in the morning a fire at Michelham Priory, an eleventh century building, now used as a private residence, provided the weirdest spectacle. The water from the hoses formed icicles on the building. The firemen’s wet uniforms froze stiff, and'the engines had to cease pumping periodically owing to the intakes freezing. In Paris the intensity of the c-oid is increasing. A number of deaths as a result of the cold are reported in France, including four in Paris. Out of a thousand telegraph lines in Paris, 250 snapped. Many of the smaller rivers in. France are frozen and blocks of ice are appearing in the Seine. The excessive cold also caused iron bridges to contract, so that wooden paving blocks were forced up. As a result, several bridges arc impassable. The strangest scenes were witnessed m the Parisian underworld. The Prefect of Police issued instructions that tramps and vagabonds be rounded up and brought during the night to police stations, where they were served with soup and coffee, instead of being charged as outcasts. The wrecks of humanity were most reluctant to obey, but finally were overjoyed at .their reception from their old-time enemies. Some burst into tears at the unexpected hospitality. ADDITIONAL DEATHS. (Received Wednesday, 11.40 a.m.) PARIS, Tuesday. ■ There have been five aditional deaths from exposure and extreme cold. The hospitals are finding difficulty in accommodating the rapidly increasing number who have been overcome by the weather. The police are taking elaborate measures to protect the hungry anu homeless. It is reported from Naples that Alt. Vesuvius is blanketeJ? with snow for the first time in historv.