Oct, 3.—7.37 inches of rain in a little over 41 hours is a lot of rain. We all use the highways and we all know how a heavy downpour can affect our daily lives and our tempers. We do not expect the drainage system to be able to carry away all the tain water as soon as it falls and in this city of ours, there must be many obstacles in the way of effective flood prevention schemes. The filling in of many local creeks must have had some effect on the situation while the silting up of others could' not have helped in any way, Some of us found consolation in the fact that the flood came later than usual: it came when the Summer sports season Was officially over and we were able to complete our schedules. Others found little ce solation is this, while still others with garden to look after, found nothing to console them. They had expected floods in September, but not so late in the month, they had therefore prepared their seed beds but they had not sown their seeds until they thought that all danger had passed: in any case, they could not wait much longer; they had to take a chance. They took it, with disastrous results in many cases. There are gardens which are unfortunately placed; they lie between gardens on higher land and there are raised sections along the road frontage. The rain water could not get away owing to a defective drainage system and to add to the misery, water poured over the raised sections from the road. It still remains and the tiny seedlings which were looking so healthy before the flood must have suffered badly if they are not all dead. There are few plants that can withstand waterlogged soil for long. Garden lovers are often disappointed people but they are never beaten and we notice that many have alrootly begun to sow new seeds in boxes to replace the seedlings presumably lost. "Tommy" had a few ideas yesterday on the subject of floods in Shanghai, "he" asked us many questions that we could not answer and we were compelled to tell "him" that the "powers that be" had put the clocks on another hour and that it was past "his" bedtime. Wi believe "he" forgave us for that "white li when "he" found that "he" hat. another hour to sleep when "he" woke up this morning. We were asked why some people in their large cars tried to drown poor pedestrians while they were walking laboriously along the highway in their rubber boots. We were also asked why the various Councils or somebody else do not publish a list of road levels or tell us which roads or sections of roads are low-lying so that we can avoid them when a flood comes along. There may be something in this, it may be possible for somebody to compile a statement showing dry routes between various points. The longer way round is often the "shortest" these days: but the trouble is that we do not know where a "pool" is until we find it. For example, to get to the railway crossing from the Avenue Joffre/Haig corner we proceed South along Avenue Haig and miss the "pool" on Rockhill Avenue. There must be dozens of similar cases.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.