Local & General

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 18, 3 April 1950, Page 4

Local & General

Life of a Bridge

What is the life of a concrete bridge? According to the Whakatane County engineer, Mr C. H. Brebner, the Main Highways Board considers that the life of a concrete bridge is 35 years, ten years more than that for a wooden structure. However the difference ir. cost is very much greater.

Whakatane Weather

A total of 3.39 inches of rain, V.’hich fell over a period of six days, was recorded at Whakatane during February. The heaviest fall on one day, February 9, was 1.53 inches. The hottest day was on February 8 of 81.0 degrees farenheit while the coolest was down by half to 42 degrees on the twentieth.

Plant Explodes A call was made for the Whakatane Volunteer Fire Brigade at about 12.15 p.m. on Saturday when an acetylene plant exploded in the premises of a plumbing business. Although the plant was destroyed there was no other damage and the brigade was not required to extinguish the fire.

Cars Collide Although both vehicles were extensively damaged nobody was seriously injured when two cars collided on the Ohope Road early Sunday morning. One of the cars driven by Mr E. Malaquin, Whakatane, was returning from Ohope u/hen the accident occurred. The other vehicle was being driven by Mr A. Hogg, Ohope.

Water Demand Decreasing The demand for water,at Whakatane is steadily decreasing and the past few weeks the pumping station has been able to build up more storage. However, for this time of the year the supply is still keen end all consumers are still warned to save wherever possible. The Water restrictions regarding hoses have not yet been lifted and still pperate within the borough.

The Tides

In the last few days a number of inquiries have been received from people curious to know how the tide times for high and low water published in the Beacon are obtained. The figures are taken from the N.Z. Nautical Almanac, which is printed by authority of Minister of Marine. No figures are supplied for Whakatane but to get the high water times at the Whakatane Heads the Almanac advises to subtract 50 minutes from the figure for high water at Auckland. Thus for today high water at Auckland was 7.45 a.m. so at Whakatane it was C. 55 a.m.