WHOLE DISTRICT SOAKED.

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 252, 26 October 1942, Page 4

WHOLE DISTRICT SOAKED.

HIGHLY BENEFICIAL RAIN. Whatever those whose Labour Day week-end holidays were spoilt by the wet may have to say about it, there is no doubt that the heavy rain which set in on Friday night and continued spasmodically on Saturday and yesterday meant the salvation of countless crop'S in the Marlborough district. Particularly in the Awatere area, and on the lighter soils of the Wairau Plain, wheat and peas were beginning to fail, and very little more of the dry spell would have sufficed to have lessened the harvest to a very serious extent. Now, with the soaking which the ground has received — in the Spring Creek area as high as 2.16 inches for the three days was gauged — and an absence of the drymg north-westerlies, there should, given normal conditions, be no more trouble. The watershed of the Wairau river eaught its share of the rain, and the river came down in a fresh which, about noon on Saturday, closed the road through Morrin's Hollow. The water commenced to drop rapidly a little later, and by Sunday morning the river level was well down, possibly indicating an improvement in the Wairau Bar, which has not been in a good state of recent weeks. The town river was about 18 inches above normal this morning, but the water v/as clear. The only other hold up through flooding was rfear Canvastown, where the Double Crossing, which a year or so ago, before the Public Works Department took the matter in hand, was notorious in wet weather, once again gave trouble. The position was at its worst about 7.30 on Saturday morning, when the tide was at full, and afterwards the depth of water across the highway subsided quickly, allowing traffto to get through without diffieulty. There was no other damage in the Canvastown or Rai distriets, and apart from the loss of a few sheep which got washed down some of the gullies, only good resulted from the downpour. The Wairau River Board's gauge in Parker street showed a total fall for the three days, ending at nine o'clock this morning, of 1.61 inches, Of this 1.21 inches fell for the first day and 30 points nup to nine o'clock yesterday morning. Rain commenced to fall at five o'clock this morning, and in the four hours ten points had been recorded. The gauge at The Wither was 39 points behind, the total recording since the rain started being 1.22 inches, of which 90 points fell for the first 24 hours. This brings the month's offioial tally up to 1.41 inches and the year's to 21.34 inches. Seddon boasted 1.18 inches for the three days, and reports state that a surprising amount of good is noticeable there already. Spring Creek's share was 2.16 inches, of which 1.43 fell during the first day, and Marshlands was not far behind with 1.89 inches. The low ground near the mouth of the Pukaka is still flooded.