MONSOON RAIN.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4896, 28 October 1925, Page 3

MONSOON RAIN.

a year of Indian climate. The Indian “rains” proper usually break in Ceylon about the middle of May, spreading gradually upwards and northwards till they spend their final torrents on the Himalayan heights. Since mid-March the thaim.imete 1 ' has been rising higher and higher, and it is not uncommon for “hell-fire" stations like Jacobabad, Lahore, or Peshawar to register temperatures, in May on early June, up .to 130 degrees Or so in, the shade. One remembers the story of the Tommy’s ghost who replied to the sentry’s inquiry as to the weather conditions down below: “Cold as Christmas. I’ve come back for my blankets!” z

Usually the rains are preceded by weeks of torrid, dry heat, burning winds that raise the “dust devils” of the plains, and growling, sterile thunder. Then comes a tearing storm, black clouds advance, gather overhead, and down comes a deluge that may last intermittently for many days. Now beware of snakes, deafen your ears to the croaking of the myriad frogs in tne “compound," draw close mosquito nets at night, and do your best to enjoy soup flavoured by flying insects of every kind. There will, at .least, be the relief that is afforded by the drop in .temperature, down perhaps to 80 degrees or even 75 degrees at night. But after a few days steamy heat rises from the baked soil, and the moist warmness of the air makes the weather even less bearable than the dry heat that came before. Again, however, one gets some compensation from the delicious fruits? that now ripen—mango, .lichee, and papai, ad fresh, green vegetables.

About inid-July the rains call a temporary halt ,and often in many part's of India there follow a few weeks of only moderately hot weather, affording the inhabitants a much-needed rest, and enabling them to gather their strength to resist the final onslaught. The cricket season is in full swing, and tennis, polo, and race meetings push the fears of September into the background. At the. present-time the temperature is again on the increase, and all the terrors of Hindustan advance one by one. The parade-strength of. the regiments in garrison is thinned by increasing sick listSj and .there is many a funeral (following death from heatstroke, cholera, on malignant malaria) in the 'cemetery, on .the edge of the cantonment. In the cities the doctors of the civil hospital and private practitioners are working double time, and they consider themselves fortunate if the season passes without a bad epidemic of cholera or plague, and they themselves also succeed in getting through without a breakdown in health.

But all toils and troubles have an ending, and at last there comets a ntorning, towards the end of September or early October, when one awakes refreshed. There is a delicious. tang in the air, like an early autumn morning at home in England. The “chummeries” empty, and one begins, if a married man, to make arrangements for the return of the memsahib and the children from the hills. Then comes the day of reunion, the happy canter to the station, and the joytous, care-free converse with others bent on a like errand. In one burst of rejoicing all the unhappy memories of the hot weather are forgotten. The cold season -h.as begun, and there are five glorious monthis ahead before one need think of pun-kah-coolies- again.—A Retired Indian Magistrate, in the London Daily News.