Real Climate Records

A comparison between the meteorological table, kindly furnished us weekly by Mr. W. H. Thomas, J.P., C.P.S., and the following telegrams, will show that Grafton is cool compared with many other places

in the colony.

MERRIWA, Friday.—The heat is registered under shingled verandah at 122°, the hottest day recorded

here for years.

GULGONG, Thursday.—The weather is frightfully hot. The thermometer yesterday registered 104° in

the shade. To-day it is at 110° in the public buildings.

GUNNEDAH, Thursday.—The Namoi has ceased running. The drought continues, and great distress

prevails.

WALGETT, Thursday.—The thermometer registered 150° in the sun to-day. Vegetation is completely

dried up.

MURRUNDI, Thursday.—The weather is exceedingly hot, and the thermometer to-day was 100° in the

shade.

GRENFELL, Friday.—The weather is fearfully hot and dusty. The thermometer to-day registered 110°

in the shade, and 140° in the sun. A man named Thirlwall died from the effects of a sunstroke.

COOTAMUNDRA, Friday.—The heat during the last three days has been intense. To-day it has ranged

from 104° to 112° in the shade. Rain is badly wanted and good water is very scarce.

BATHURST, Friday.—The thermometer registered 112° in the shade at the telegraph station to-day.

The heat was most oppressive, and rain is badly wanted.

QUEANBEYAN, Friday.—The heat for the last three days has been very oppressive, On Wednesday it was 102°, on Thursday 108°, and to-day 109° in the shade. There is no sign of a change.

WALGETT, Saturday.—To-day was one of the hottest days on record here. The thermometer was 162° in

the sun and 127° in the shade. At 6 p.m. it registered 120° in the shade.

BOURKE, Saturday.—The heat to-day was intense ; the thermometer was 121° in the shade. The weather

was calm, with no sign of rain.

ORANGE, Saturday.—This forenoon, the weather was intolerably hot. The thermometer registered 96°

in the shade. In the afternoon a thunderstorm took place, during which a house was struck by lightning,

and totally burned. The inmates were absent at the time. The adjoining premises were saved with diffi-

culty.

COWRA, Tuesday.—The weather during the past week has been intensely hot and dry. The thermo-

meter has ranged from 105° to 115° in the shade, and up to 152° in the sun. The Lachlan River has now

almost stopped running. Rain is urgently wanted.

COONAMBLE, Tuesday.—The average heat during the last four or five days under the Commercial Bank

verandah was 126°. There is no grass and no water, and no stock moving. Some of the stations are dried

out. This is the severest drought ever known here.

PARKES, Monday.—The thermometer yesterday was from 112° to 114° in the shade. To-day a thunder-

storm has occurred, but there is no rain. The heat now is 108° in the shade. The escort this week is 321 oz.

DUBBO, Monday.—The weather here is frightful. The thermometer for four days has been 110° in the

shade. The magpies and other birds are so much affected by the heat that they are dropping off the trees ; others are leaving the bush and taking shelter in the houses of the settlers. At Bourke, yesterday, the heat was 122° in the shade; the fowls are dropping dead in large numbers. There is no sign of rain, and no cattle are travelling.

A correspondent, writing from the Liverpool Plains district to the Evening News says:—”We shall all be

ruined if rain does not fall within a month. It is pitiful to hear the tales of distress in every direction here, and from people too that two years ago could spend hundreds of pounds to as many shillings now.

No later than last week poor J— W— was here a ruined man ; and not only had sheep, horses, and cattle all perished, but he with his wife and little children have been nearly starving, and for nearly four months they had been subsisting on kangaroo and wallaby. There they are, once well-to-do and very comfortable ; now just the reverse, and not a horse to take them away from their miserable place.

Another well to-do selector, living near him, is similarly circumstanced. He has also suffered great privations poor fellow. Out of 4670 sheep he was compelled to travel for sustenance, only 200 returned alive.

J— W— tells me he has to walk twelve miles every day to cut down a few oaks, to keep life in two cows for

the sake of the milk for the little children, and he has to draw water from a well 140 feet deep. No one can

possibly imagine the state of Liverpool Plains. All business is at a stand-still, and the necessaries of life

are very dear.”

WARWICK, January 12.—The weather during the past week has been hot and dry, and everything looks

withered and parched again. Creeks and watercourses are dry for long distances, and the Condamine has

never been so low—so dried up we may say—for many years. Old residents tell us that even in the severe

drought of 1858-9 the river was not so bad.—Examiner.