AUSTRALIA'S HOT SPELL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7713, 16 January 1905, Page 3

AUSTRALIA'S HOT SPELL.

ITS SEYERITY AT ADELAIDE. Workshops Closed. ADELAIDE, Jan. 11. The heat is very great. The locomotive workshops 'have ceased work. One employee has died 1 from heat apoplexj^ VICTORIA'S SCOURGING. A SERIOUS RECRUDESCENCE. (Received Jan. 15, 5.20 p.m.) MELBOURNE, Jan. 15. Bush lires swept the country for .fifty miles around BaOlarut. Great damaige was done to crops in the Clareuoon, L.nllul, Smeaton, Clunes, utid MacEdon districts. Three deaths from heat apoplexy occurred nt liendigo. The thermometer rocoixltd 114 in the .shade. The lires are causing mucin devastation.; (Received Jan. 16, 0.47 a.m.) MELBOURNE, Jan. 15. Reports of great heat and bush lires continue to come to hand. Several more deaths have occurred through the Heat, and several bridges are down. The Tro walla property and Streatan, Blythevall, and Emu stations had the grass swept off them, and hundreds of sheep tand miles of fencing were destroyed, A WARM NEW YEAR. Thus the Daily Telegraph one morning during the heat wave : The big, the strong, the frail, the fat, the fair, tlio leanj the lank, the pretty, the plain, tho young, the old, the rich, the poor—thirst has levelled them a]]. There was never such unanimity on a public question before. Anything in the Shape of •ooling liquid h a s been greedily lapped up. Never before has the city had such a thirst. In such a sickening, sweltering heat one of the joys of living was; to be able to drink, and the city drank deep., and lived. It would be impossible to correctly assess the quantity of liquid consumed during the past few days, but, if collected into one jiiace, it would make a decent-sdzed lake, while the empty bottles would make a small mountain. In soirie of the small fruit shops the piles 0 f bottles made locomotion behind the counter diliicult. The combination of the heat wave with the popular ceremonial of welcoming the New Year, which!, ordinarily, is a period whun pent-up thirsts are given free exercise, added to the great consumption of liquids from soft drinks to more pungent firewater. The favourite soft di'ink, it appears, was the Itmon squash. Therefore t'ho lemon, which but a lew weeks ago was a comparative drug on the market, came into great demand and use! Ginger- beer, too. seemed to have worked itself into the heart of the young nation, as the piled-up heaps of stonjey '.'dead marines" told. The cordials which are sold in big, fat botfjes were rushed by the thousands of thirsty souls which paraded the streets. Soda and milk had its devotees, and even tea, as tMe crowded condition of the most popular resorts during the evening, and when the theatres were out, proved', was eagerly sought. But water, on account of its cheapness and its cooling quality, did as much as anything to quench the thirst of the people). Everywhere in the city where there arc drinking fountains there were crowds of people, waiting their turn for a quaff, while it was common to see a man with liis mouth glued to some delicious tap.