Severe Winter in N.I.

From Our Own Correspondent.

Norfolk Is., Sept. 9.

CONSIDERING the unusual severity of our winter this year—the worst within the memory of the old est inhabitant —with endless rain and cold and bitter winds, comparatively speaking, it is unfortunate that we have had an unprecedented number of visi tors, who came here to escape similar conditions elsewhere.

They have been thoroughly disgusted with everything and everybody, com paring us, greatly to our disadvantage, with such places as Tahiti, Samoa and Fiji; forgetting, in their annoyance, that we do not profess to be a tropical island —are, indeed, glad and fortunate to lie 29 degrees south of the burning equator and to enjoy, as a rule, the best all-the-year-round climate in the world. And, apart from unusual con ditions, few of them appear to have enquired before they left home what season of the year was our rainy season.

Should they return in six months’ time, like Lazarus —if it was Lazarus — they will crave, in vain, a drop of water for the tips of their tongues.