A MANTLE OF SNOW.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 30 December 1927, Page 5

A MANTLE OF SNOW.

ARCTIC CONDITIONS. FIERCE GALES. Press Acsociation -Electvlc Telegraph--CopyrgUo. LONDON, Thursday. Britain is still in the grip of Arctic conditions. Nine degrees of frost are now prevailing, and this increases the difficulty of clearing the snow drifts. Numerous hamlets, especially the Afendips and other hill districts, have been cut off since 'Christmas Day, receiving no letters, no papers and very little food, while telephone lines are disorganised and communication is practically impossible. Doctors on Salisbury Plain are unable to reach the sick, and children are being born without medical help. Drifts on the plain are often twenty feet deep. The doctors say they attempted to force their motors through the drifts, but failed. Army tanks assisted in forcing passages through the snow-blockcd roads at Tidworth and elsewhere on Salisbury Plain. Two infantry battalions are assisting to clear the Andover road. Three tanks, by crushing the drifts, enabled an omnibus service to reach the camp. The tanks also brought mails, milk and provisions, which were running low at the camps. One tank rescued a number of women passengers who were stranded on the railway line near Bulford. Three hundred families are now housed in public halls in Canterbury, and others in local barracks. For the third day fierce north-east gales swept the Channel. Terrific seas are running, and these Hooded the hatches and burst the bulkhead of the ladies’ saloon on a cross-Channel packet, causing consternation among women and children as the water poured into the crowded saloon. Disembarkation was an exceedingly difficult task, some women being so ill that they had to be carried ashore.

FROZEN TO LAMP POST. (Received Friday, 9.10 a.m.) GENEVA, Thursday. A game-keeper named Kister left an inn at Basle in the early hours of the morning, and clung to a lamp-post, to which he became frozen. He was released with difficulty at daylight, and died in agony. WOLVES INVADE VILLAGES. (Received Friday, 9.10 a.m.) BUDAPEST, Thursday. The severe winter has driven packs of wolves to Hungarian villages. Some penetrated the capital, and one was shot in the heart of the city. GENERAL DISORGANISATION. LONDON, Wednesday. General disorganisation of trunk telephones, telegraphic delay, and the isolation of various snow-bound districts, has hitherto prevented the realisation of the blizzard’s full toll. It is now certain that the South of England’s experience is unprecedented in living memory. Twelve important outlets from London arc .still blocked by frozen drifts between sft and 20ft deep, or floods. Eight roads are open, but the conditions necessitate careful crawling owing to the ice-surfaced hills. ATotorists endeavouring to reach London relate trying road after road travelling at a walking pace, and frequently shovelling the smaller drifts. Eventually they would be driven back by a colossal drift packed to the level of the roadsides, and finally had to give up and proceed to London by train. All the roads arc strewn with abandoned cars and motor cycles, the occupants walking miles seeking refuge. Home drifts are miles long. A hard frost has now set in, rendering the removal of the drifts almost an impossible task. Complete restoration ot road communications is unlikely «n----til a thaw sets in. On the contrary, continued frost is the chief hope of preventing disastrous floods in the Thames Valley. The Thames tributaries are rising, and Kunnymede is submerged. If the snow melts before the Hood water is dispersed thousands more tons will be released. Nevertheless, many districts arc praying for it thaw to remove the enormous drifts, which arc completely cutting them off from the world, and resulting in the shortening of food supplies, despite the use of rafts, punts, snow ploughs and sledges.

HOMES FLOODED. LON DON, Wednesday. Tales of motor buses marooned in various districts are frequent. Passengers werq often forced to spend the night in the buses or walk to the nearest town, where they found rail communication blocked, resulting sometimes in two days’ imprisonment. The railways generally report that conditions are returning to normal, although the re" 4 arc many delays owing to frozen points and signals, and snowdrifts 0)i some lines, notably in Hampshire. The neighbourhood of Basingstoke caught the full force of the blizzard, which completely blocked a train and snowed it up on Christmas night at Alton." It is not yet released. The steamer Ehgadinc crossed the Channel from Boulogne to-day, and was continually swept by mountainous seas and badly battered. The Dieppe-Ncwhaven and South-ampton-Havre services continue. The Stour floods completely surround Canterbury, and 500 homes are flooded, 200 people living in bedrooms being supplied with food from boats. Villages in the vicinity arc isolated, and homeless people are being accommodated in the deanery and barracks. The Mayor is raising a relief fund. Road traffic in Cornwall and Devon, where snow is very rare, is completely

disorganised, and steamers are supplying food to those living on the coast. Firemen took four hours to cover eight miles in digging out a mile-long drift when they were called out at Standon Lordship, an historic Elizabethan mansion in Hertfordshire, dating back to 154(1, where Wellington lived after Waterloo. The occupants were forced to watch the burning floors falling in, stopping the servants’ efforts to save valuables. The London boroughs are employing thousands of unemployed to clear the streets at a cost of £SOOO a day.— ‘ • Sun. ’ ’