LAST WEED’S DOWNPOUR

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4979, 26 May 1926, Page 4

LAST WEED’S DOWNPOUR

EFFECT ON THE PLAINSb LITTLE DAMAGE DONE. Last week’s country-wide deluge caused very little damage on th© Hauraki Plains. The amount of rain was (Slight compared with that df other districts, the heaviest fall being on Thursday, when slightly under one and a half inches were recorded at the Lands Office; Kerepeehi. The country generally was dry before the deluge, and thus the drains ' were capable of dealing with a large quantity of water. On Friday they were neaily full, but were 'functioning well, ,and storm-water did not lie on farm land for long. The river is rising, but the tidefe are low, and except in the upper reaches near Mangawhero and Pafetonga' it has nbt overspread its banks. The inundation of that district isi not unusual, in winter-time.

WASHOUT ON HIGHWAY. The stream which drains the large area of barren hill coutnry west of the Plains rose, very rapidly on Thursday night, and on Friday morning it was reported that a washout had occurred at the bridge' recently erected by the Public'Works Department on the ma,in highway ,a few miles west of Waitakaruru. An inspection disclosed that at the Pokenoi end of the bridge the approach had been scoured out 'for about six feet. The gap was. temporarily bridged on Friday a.nd the route reoepned. At its highest the Water must have reached, to within a foot of the bottom of the bridge. Old res,idenfe of the district recall that nearly a, dozen bridges have been washed away at that spot.

INUNDATION AT WAITAKARURU. Down the same stream, where it commences to flow over the flat land, its bed has been improved amd stopbanks have been erected. At one of the bends a few chains below Mahuta Road the stop-bank carried away, precipitating the flood-water on to farm’ land. Once inside the stop-bank the water could not get out fa#t enough through the small flood-gates provided to deal with storm-water, and many farms between ,the Waitakaruru-Maukoro canal and the Waitakaruru stream were quickly inundated. It is' reported that a thousand acres are under water. The depth is not very great, and the water should soon get away, as. no more is entering and there is a fall of several feet into the canalsFrom other distiicts no report;?: of damage are to hand, but as; it is still raining and reports from the upper reaches of the Piajra River indicate that a large quantity o<? water is coding down, there is the chance that, drains ma.y become less efficient owing to the greater height of tire river.