FOOD SENT BY AIRPLANE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 241, 31 December 1927, Page 7

FOOD SENT BY AIRPLANE

SNOW BELEAGUERED TOWNS RAILWAYS BACK TO NORMAL

ALTHOUGH the steamer and train services axe back to normal, many towns in England are still snowbound, and airplanes have provided the only means of getting provisions sent.

British 'Wireless—Press Assn.—Copyrigh

Reed. 10. 4a a.m. RUGBY. Friday. The countryside in Southern England remains snowbound, and although a gradual improvement is reported in some of the main roads, many are still impassable, and the work of clearing is hampered by a continuance of the sharp frost. The high winds have dropped, however, and the English Channel is calmer. Sailings are being resumed from Dover to Calais to-day. The air services to the Continent from Croydon were operated yesterday, and an unusually large number of passengers was carried.

The frost has checked the floods in the Thames Valley, and the situation in Canterbury and Maidstone has improved. Floods, due to the overflowing of the Stour and the upper Medway having subsided, the roads which were flooded are now coated with ice. ADDITIONAL TRAINS

Railway services are now practically normal. The traffic on most of the main railway lines has been but little affected, and the London and North - Eastern Railway worked no fewer than 200 additional trains during the holiday seasons, despite the snowdrifts and fozen points, and carried about 275,000 long-distance passengers, and 400,000 parcels. International telephonic services have now been restored, but communication with the Continent is hampered, owing to many of the lines to Paris and to Zurich and Basle being down. Forecasts indicate a continuance of the frost during the week-end, with a possibility of further snowfalls. Cross-Channel air services are not only normal, but also have had to be augmented owing to the demand for seats. At noon, the Imperial Airways had to put on a special service of Handley-Page-Napier air liners. FOOD BY AIRPLANE Road traffic, however, is little easier, and small towns and villages remain snowbound. Airplanes have been used in some localities to bring badlyneeded supplies to isolated places. For instance, an airplane piloted by Captain Hope, winner of the King's Cup, was leaving Hendon airdrome this evening to fly low over five snowed-up villages near London and drop parcels containing tins of condensed milk. One result of the wintry conditions is that many people who had arranged visits to Switzerland for winter sports have cancelled them, as they can get all the winter sports they want at home. The frozen state of the ponds and waterways has indeed brought about, a revival of ice-skating, which has languished for many years owing to the unsuitable conditions. and

tobogganing and sledging are proceed* ing merrily. Two airplanes from London carried food to Westerham, in Kent, which was isolated for four days by drifts 14ft high, in which scores of vehicles were completely lost. The foreshore at Sandwich Bay was covered with millions of starfish and innumberable lobsters, owing to the waves having scoured the breeding ground. As they were thrown up the fish were frozen and were fit for food. Paris yesterday received the London newspapers for the first time since Saturdaj', but telephonic and telegraphic connection between London and Paris has been much delayed since Monday, although the wireless is working excellently. WOLVES DEVOUR POLISH WOMEN

Messages from Poland say that raids by wild beasts maddened by hunger have increased the terrors of the winter. Packs of wolves have killed many peasants in the Eastern borderlands. Two women were devoured n-rar Wolkoewysk. and also four smugglers who had just crossed the. border with contraband goods. 'i he Government is employing troops to organise great hunts to kill as many wolves as possible.—A. and N.Z.