FURTHER ACCOUNTS FROM THE HUTT VALLEY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2613, 8 November 1915, Page 6

FURTHER ACCOUNTS FROM THE HUTT VALLEY

va: long-to-be-remembered NIGHT. Saturday morning's storm will be long remembered by Hutt Valley residents, particularly those adjacent to the Ilutt Road. Hundreds of workers wero unable to got to the city whilst thu Petono Workshops were deprived of a large, number of their men, who reside in tho city, and wero unable to get beyond Ngahauranga. A passenger by an early train from Wellington to Potone on Saturday morning, who walked from Ngahauranga,_ was eagerly questioned upon bis arrival at Petono station by some of the 300 and odd persons that' awaited patiently for a train to take them to their various business places. The pedestrian, whoso attire novo evidence that he had been in tho thick of it, told the following story :—

"Tho two early trains from Welliupt'on and a goods-train aro waiting at, NiroJinumngaj and from uppom'aiitoß -if&Jiltg];: .to ,wau t

appear to bo washed out, but near Rocky Point about 400 yards of the railway track is under water. Some of you who are so ready to heap blessings on the Railway Department because you cannot get to business would bo t'ho first to complain if you travelled in a train under such circumstances, and there was an accident. Tho "weep holes" in the retaining-wall are all blocked, and no one knows whetliero_ is a wash-out until that lake is got rid of. About a mile froni the Petonc Mill is the worst of the slips. Roots and limbs of tTees and boulders of tremendous size have been hurled across tho road and the cycle-track, and carried away about fifty yards of tho railway fence. A baker's motor, containing a ton of bread, was held up. Another, carrying tho morning papers, Was out of action, and a large meat wagon, after a desperate effort, managed to get on to the cycle-track, and flounder through."

After learning that there was a possibility of getting to town, several of tho crowd jumped on passing vehicles, and entrained at Ngahauranga. By 9.30, however, the ordinary, traffic was resumed.

Petone and Lower Hutt Boroughs suffered little damage through the storm. Tlie Hutt River behaved admirably, and the I'etone Boat Harbour, contrary to expectations, escaped harm. A portion of Regent Street, Petone, was under water for some hours, and tho woollen mills were obliged to- uso l/lie borough water-in consequence, of a block occurring in their private dam. At the Government Workshops the stores, boilermakers' and moulders' shops liad several inches of water on the floors. Hundreds of tons of driftwood were washed on to the Petono beach, and the paddocks near tho mouth of the Belmont Stream wore literally strewn with logs. Some of the timber from the Belmont Bridge was washed upon the Petone foreshore near the woollen mills. TRAFFIC RESUMES. Inquiries of the Railway Traffic Department at a late hour last evening elicited tho statement that traffic will bo accepted as usual to-day. A train got through yesterday morning.