A "GHASTLY SUMMER."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 989, 8 March 1910, Page 4

A "GHASTLY SUMMER."

Melbourne in particular, and Victoria in general, have been suffering the discomforts and miseries attendant ou a heat wave. Papers received by Tuesday's mail describe the visitation as having been the worst experienced since the terrible one of two years ago. A heat wave was passing slowly over tbe south and southeastern portions of Australia, and unhappy Melbourne was in the middle of it. Here in New Zealand we think ourselves hardly treated by the climate when the heat reaches 85 deg. in the shade; but the unfortunate population of Melbourne had to frizzle under 101 deg. on Saturday, February 19th, and 102 deg. the next day. The mercury continued to hold its high position triumphantly hour after hour, and even the late hours of the night brought no relief. The swell cafes were almost deserted; no one had the heart to eat anything indoors under such trying conditions. People went off to the beach at St. Kilda, Brighton, South Melbourne—in fact, anywhere where there was a chance of relief from the intolerable heat—and in packages under their arms carried something f eat besides the waves that rolled lazily up the sands Suffering humanity tried- to lessen its discomforts by bathing by the hour, and sleeping in tents. At Brooklyn, near Footscray, a suburb of Melbourne, a quarryman had a narrow escape. He h?d drilled a hole for blasting, and had just inserted the powder, when it exploded. Stone flew in all directions, but the quarryman got off with cuts in the neck and hands. It was thought the intense heat caused the powder to explode. At Yarrawonga several people were stricken down with heat apoplexy, and a horse dropped dead. At Alvie, a lady riding a bicycle was overcome by the heat, and, falling off, broke a coilar-bone. At Drouin, on the Sunday night, numbers of residents gave up the attempt to find rest amid j norma! surroundings, and slept out in the main street or under trees in the park. In Melbourne by night the parks were crowded with hatless and coatless people; heavy furniture vans laden with families seeking relief from the beat, lumbered in all dir-

ections; and, needless to say, the stock of cooJ drinks, ice, and fruit, was rapidly depleted. , Life under such conditions for aged people and invalids must have been little less than torment