EXTENSIVE FLOODS.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 8 February 1917, Page 3

EXTENSIVE FLOODS.

GREAT DAMAGE REPORTED

SEVERAL LIVES LOST,

SOME NARROW ESCAPES

SERIOUS damage was caused by the floods on Saturday, which were the heaviest known for the last 40 years. On both the Northern lines, and also on the Thames line, railway communication was interrupted.

The rainfall was abnormal. So great was the accumulation of storm water in the Kaipara section that at Waby only, about 2ft of the station building was visible above the flood. The railway itself would, therefore, be about 10ft under water, and the inundation extends for many hundreds of yards north and south of the station.

The Ahuroa tunnel is still blocked by the large slip, and trains are not running beyond Kaukapakapa. It will probably be the end of the week before traffic to Wellsford can be resumed. Two ballast trains are now engaged at the slip.

In the Otamatea County eight bridges were completely washed away, in addition to serious landslips on many of the main roads, which in some instances completely blocked the traffic, The Ruawai flats were completely inundated. Traffic on the Wairere, Mareretu and Ruawai roads is blocked.

The cost of repairing the damage done to bridges and roads being of so costly a nature, the County Council is asking the Minister for Public Works to send one of. his officers to inspect the damage done, with the view of obtaining the Government's assistance.

The power station at the Wairua Falls, which supplies Whangarei with light, was seriously damaged, and the town was in darkness. Extensive repairs are now underway.

In the upper Northern Wairoa the flood-waters caused considerable damage, and a number of narrow escapes from drowning are reported. Merchandise worth £350 was wholly lost, and numbers of cattle were observed being carried down the river.

At Kaihu two Maori children were washed out of their parents' whare and drowned, and a Maori woman and her child had to take refuge in a tree for six hours. In the Kaihu Valley the damage is extensive, and in addition to slips in cuttings, the railway has been considerably twisted.

The names of the two men who were drowned while attempting to cross the Kaihu Creek at Trounson's Mill on Saturday are Repeta Haira, 25 years of age, and Hone Turu, aged 20 years.

At Paparoa the low-lying portions of the township were submerged. On Saturday two boys named Gecrge Collins and Cuthbert Dukes narrowly escaped drowning in the Paparoa River which overflowed the main township road,

AtTowai a settler's wife, Mrs A. Christie, was drowned on Saturday, While crossing a creek on a foot bridge she was swept off her feet by the rushing torrent, and her body was found the next day entangled in a fence.

The residents qf Tahefc-e had a most anxiqus time, owing to the rapid rise of the' river, The water rapidly reached th§ level qf the bridge decking, whioh is abqut 2Qft above the high tide level. In the store, which was later carried away by the flood, a man named Bradbury was cut off by the rushing waters. He telephoned for a launch, arid was rescued with difficulty. Two gumdiggers named Patrick Power, and Alfred Jacobson were drowned on Saturday about three mUes frq.m BqrQ% . r^ea.r- the Wairu^ Ir-idge. They (and a man n.a,med Hamilton) had resided there for a, ©qnsiderable time a.net had witnessed ma^y goods but had never, until Saturday last / "been placed in jeopardy, s a i ast resource tne men clambered on the roof of the whare and clung to the ridging. They were observed from, a distanoe by a man named Campbell who was on horseback and realising the desperate peril of the isolated men, galloped to nearest house for a vope. Returning he threw the rope to Hamilton ai>^ hauled him to safety. At that moment the whai*e collapsed and the other two were swept away by the toin-ent.

The Labour Department is taking action against the miners who went on stnko t>x Blackball. This would be a far happier place if our debtors had memories like our creditors. Would it be proper to speak of an offensive telegram as a barbed wire ?