RAILWAY DAMAGE

Hokitika Guardian, 24 March 1933, Page 4

RAILWAY DAMAGE

BY FLOODS IN N.I.

LIMITED EXPRESS RESUMES

(Per Press Association Copyright.)

WELLINGTON,

March 23.

The passengers who left Wellington by the Limiced express last night will arrive at Auckland at 7 o'clock tonight, and the Monowai has been delayed for tne connection.

The travellers by last night’s Limited from Auckland are expected to arrive ;! t Wellington at eleven to-night. The Limited is being run both fyom Auckland and Wellington to-night, but the Railway Department advises that the passengers will have to make their own 'arrangements for transport between. Kakahi and Taumarunui about ten miles. A motor service is available. It is anticipated that to-night’s Limited will 'arrive at Auckland l an hour and a half late, and that the train from Auckland w r ill reach' Wellington about one To-morrow afternoon/ . ,

To-day’s ordinlany two o’clock Auckland express was cancelled. . Ordinary express trains from. Auckland and Wellington have been cancelled until further notice.

The Poet Office reports that the mail service for first-class matter is being maintained and consideration is being given to the transportation of second class mail matter by steamer to-mor, row. The position, however, is change ing hourly for the better, and it is thought that soon a complete mail service will he restored. a

MORE DAMAGE REVEALED

INCREDIBLE RISE OF WATERS,

TAUMAR UN ITT, March 23. Reports from outside, districts reveal serious flooding and damage.

At Nihouiho the water rose to within six inches of the tops of the windows in several houses. ' The show grounds at Nihoniho were covered to a depth of eight feet. The river there was swollen to a mile in width. Chlaytor’s bridge was washed away. At Otangiwai, slips' occurred on both sides of the road leading up Pleasant’s Hill, and it is impossible for even a . horse; to get'past!

The road from Okahukura to Matiere is invnnos’hle. There is a very big slip at Mahirakau, and a . bridge on the road to Ongarue, near the school, was washed 'away. At Mater© the water entered some houses to a depth of -six feet.

The bridge over the main Oiura river at Hannan’s was washed lawny.'

A former, S. Manning, lost two hundred sheep in Kaitieke County. There is a serious lip near Kaitieke, blocking the road, and the upper Retaruke bridge was washed away.

AN UNENVIABLE EXPERIENCE,

PASSENGERS DESCRIBE TRIP.

WELLINGTON, March 23.

The Auckland cricketers, Weir, Vivian and Whitelaw, were on Tuesday’s Limited express from Auckland,, en route for Christchurch for the test match, and their experience is'one thev will not easily forget. “We felt bumps, getting stronger and. stronger, ipid then she rocked,” said Vivian to-day. “We thought we were over! You have only to see the spot to see how lucky we were. I never want to go through anything like it again!” He was speaking of the first washout. The culvert Bad:, gone, and left n section of the line unsupported. Below there was a drop of about 25 feet to tbe river. How the train managed to get over is a, mystery to the passengers, but get over it did, and thus averted wliat might have been one of the greatest disasters in the history of the New Zealand railways. The line sagged and buckled as the train went across.. The momentum apparently carried’ the v4iole train over. All of the couplings broke and the engine went on its own off the rails for a few yards.

Another passenger, Mr A. Bradley, of Otago, said that it was not possible to express the feelings that cameover him as the train bumped and that bit of line. She went up and down like a ''conic railway,' and if it had not been for the bogey wheels on the engine forming a wedge, they would niS have been over. It was impossible to say how near a catastrophe it was. Only the hand of Providence had saved them. The passengers were very calm. There was not the slightest suggestion of panic.

TRIBUTE TO ENGINE DRIVER,

TAUMARU'XUr, March 23

Dr. Geo. E. P. Philpots, of Melbourne, was a passenger on the train which wa, s held up by the Kakahi subsidence at 4.30 o’clock this morning. He expressed the opinion that the remarkable care of the driver of thetrain had saved the passengers from', disaster. The careful driving had! saved the engine- rnd postal vans front falling: over the filling in which the subsidence occurred. Had the engine gone over, he said, the carnages, would have fallen into the river below.

Dr. Phil -"fs also paid a tribute to tile railway authorities for the consideration sin p' tbe passengers m transporting them from Kakahi to Piviaki?, in lorries, where they joined a train for Taumarunui.