Great Snowstorm in london Extraordinary Scenes.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 191, 12 February 1887, Page 5

Great Snowstorm in london Extraordinary Scenes.

Boxing Day, 18S6, will long be remernberea by Londoners. Hot that the weather itself was on the whole much to find fault with ; indeed, for the great part of the day it was sunny and almost genial in London. It was all the doing of the night before which rendered Boxing Day so distinguished in the annals of popular holi days. The previous night's weathor wos certainly an extraordinary combination of wind and wet, cold and snow, as "the oldest inhabitant" of London can ever have experienced ; and if we were to judge by the wreck and ruin in gardens and parka, wo Bhould be inclined to say that po destructive a winter's night has scarcely ever been experienced on shore berore. The fall of snow was exceptionally heavy while it lasted, and, in spite of the rain which had fallen throughout, December 26, and which had thoroughly sodden the ground, the depth of snow the following morning in the suburbs of London measured about 9 inches in exposed places when free from drift. As to the telegraphs throughout the country, the postal authorities are inclined to think that they had as bad a time twenty years ago. In 1886 they had a very eimilar experience in the way of weather, but then they had not at that time anything like the same extent of wires, and their poles had not, as a rule, nearly so many wires to carry. It was not, as a rule, the wires that had given way, but the posts, and along eoine of the lines hardly a single post was standing. Ah a matter of fact, the telegraphic breakdown was total and complete, except as to tho north and in inner London. Thanhs to the very general adoption of the underground system in London, there was no interruption of traffic over this part of the Post Office domain. The streets in London on December 27 enjoyed all the delights of a deep snow, combined with a alow thaw. In a general way the thaw does not come till we have had time to make some little cl^arnnce of roaQB and footways, or the snow thaws ac it falls and does not accumulate much on footways. But on December 27 a deep snow covered everything, and beneath the deep &now was an inch or two of muddy Jslush, while many thorough fares Father Christmas eoemed to be doing hie best to keep thing* merry by shunting down off the house roofs avulanches of wet enow upon the footways beneath, which were all in an exceedingly wet and slippery condition. The soberest of pedestrian* found it extremely difficult to avoid slipping and falling about on the pavements, while the vehicular traffic of London was to a very large extent withdrawn from the streets. Cabs wore few and far between, and for some hours there was hardly such a thing to be seen ; while p-ivate vehicles were even charier of the atreotß. Some of the buslines made a gallant attempt to keep up their service ; but it was pitiable in the extreme to see the struggles , of the horses, more especially on the asphalt in the city. Over their fetlocks in wet enow, and with the roadways almost bb | slippery as though they were sheets of ice, I it was impossible for them to move at more than a walking pace ; and as foi starting I afresh, when once they had stopped it waa j often altogether impracticable. Again and again bystanders put shoulders to the wheels and gave the wretched horsee a start out of pure compassion for them and | their drivers. The storm was pretty general throughout England and Wales, doing considerable damage, telegraph poles and wires *nd railway signal posts being blown down over the ! greater part of the country, seriously interrupting telegraphic communication. Owing to heavy snowdrifts, or to the obstruction of the lines by fallen signal posts or wires, railway traffic was greatly disorganised, and in some cases it was completely stopped. At 'Wesfe Dray ton eleven trains were detained during the night of D«3. 26, and in other parts of the country trains were reported as snowed up. On the Bridport railway three bridges were destroyed. Upon the east coast a hurricane raged, and tWe were several shipwrecks, with loss of life. Wrecks, with the loss of parts of the crews, also took place at Dover and East End. Altogether the storm has oeen a most severe and disastrous one.