The Waikato Flood.

Manawatu Herald, 17 August 1893, Page 2

The Waikato Flood.

The following telegram from Auckland dated Tuesday will show what the flood has been like:-^The Waikato river is falling. The diffi- . culties of loading and unloading at - the Mercer end of the railway have been enormous. The train hag. been running through two feet of water even to reach Maungatawhiri bridge, and yesterday a steamer, drawing five barges of coal, actually steamed along the south road aa far as the bridge, and the coal was loaded on to the trucks there and brought to Auckland, which has been threatened with a coal famine. The department has been working night and day upon preparations for the repair of the railway as fast as the waterfalls. Ona of the engines at Huntly is exclusively employed upon this work, and 250 truck loads of matevial aye ready to be toppled into the gaps whenever this can be done. The train got into Mercer to-day, preceded by a pilot truck, through about 18 inches of water betwe?n Maungatawhiri and Mercer. Mr Coom, the engineer, with a velocipede on a truck reached a point 55 miles south of Auckland, and hopes, at the rate at which the waters are now going down, to get the breaks repaired and the train running by Friday or Saturday.