50 years ago

LOCUSTS played havoc with motorists in the Western District over the weekend when cars became over-heated as a result of radiators being blocked with the insects. A spokesman for the Hamilton branch of the RACV said yesterday a “number” of cars received service during the weekend for blocked radiators. Offices of the Department of Agriculture in Horsham and Hamilton said the plague was worse yesterday than any day of last week. A resident of Balmoral said yesterday the township was just covered by a “thick cloud of insects”. And the manager of Dalgety’s in Balmoral, Mr Charles Bloomfield, said he had never seen a locust plague as thick as it was yesterday in all his 70 years of living in the district.