OFFICIAL WIRELESS

Hokitika Guardian, 29 June 1929, Page 6

OFFICIAL WIRELESS

HONORAHY -DEGREES CON- ' EE HR ED. DISTINGUISHED FOREIGNERS (British Official Wirelesß.) RUGBY, June 26. The degree of D.C.L. lionoris causa, lias been conferred l>v the Oxford University on a number of distinguished foreigners. They include Alarquis Merry . Del Val, Spanish Ambassador, General C. G. Dawes, Ambassador lor the United States, and Mohammed Mahmoud Pasha, Prime Minister of Egypt. Mr F. B. Kellogg, late Secretary of State of the United States, and Marshal Lyautey, on whom it was proposed to confer degrees, were unable to be present. ■ SHORTAGE OF RAIN. SERIOUS POSITION ARISES IN ENGLAND. : ’ RUGBY, June 26. The shortage of rain during the past six . months is causing concern in certain parts of England and-Wales. The Meteorological Office of the Air Ministry points out that the decided deficiency during the winter months, from December to February, was most serious from the point of view of water supply, for it is the rainfall of those months which percolates through the soil and maintains the springs and rivers. London and Birmingham received only half their normal rainfall amounts in that period, and in Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire and Kent, the rainfall was between 30 and 30 per cent, of the normal. Only 2.72 in. of rain fell at Margate, Kent, during the first five months of the year, and 2.86 in at Shoeburvness, Essex. Even at Seathwaite, Cumberland, one of the wettest places in England, where 24.15 inches were registered, the rainfall was only 47 per cent, of the average.