THE BELMORE BRIDGE.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 98, 3 May 1870, Page 2

THE BELMORE BRIDGE.

Without stopping to comment on the ttatt of the other embankments, which were generally speaking considered safe. I pasa on to notice the pcene which presented1 itself to my view on Belmore Bridge. At the period of my visit to the bridge, there were not fewer than a. couple of hundred persons on it, watching with interest tha progress of the mighty flood of water towards the ocean. The current appeared to be running stronger than ever I remember to have seen it before, and every now and then as a large log would be borne swiftly against one of the massive piers, the whole structure would shake and quiver again. The youngsters .of the town had congregated in scores for the purpose of " fishing" with hooks for the pumpkins which kept constantly floating by all day long in countless numbers. If I said that some hundreds of thousands of pumpkins went down during Sunday and Monday. I really don't think I should be exaggerating, for the whole river on both sides, of the bridge wasl literally covered with them. But there was more valuable property than pumpkins coming down when I was on the bridge. During the half hour I was there, I counted no less than twelve sheep and five or six pigs—:all deadpass under the bridge, and I was crdibly informed that fully 300 sheep and • fifty pigs must have gone by since about five o'clock in the morning. About nine o'clock a horse with saddle and bridle on went down, and it was said by some of the spectators on the bridge at the time that the horse was alive. A live heifer also went by, and when near the bend of the river, opposite to the Catholic Church, made a desperate, but unsuccessful attempt to reach the land. It seemed to bear up against the current for a second or two, when it was caught in an eddy, and was quickly out of sight. When I left the bridge at three o'clock, the guage showed a rise of 32 feet 4 inches.