SNOW Off THE RANGES

Opotiki News, Volume I, Issue 64, 1 August 1938, Page 3

SNOW Off THE RANGES

COLD WEEK-END IN. OPOTIKI HEAVY HALL AT AIATAAVAI TROUBLE ON ROADS : ~~T : . A cold southerly wind sprang up in Opotiki on 'Saturday and in the aiternoon conditions became very cold. The weather remained bad throughout yesterday but the clouds cleared: sonfewliat in the early night. The temperature to-day still remained very, cold, with a light wind blowing from the hills. ' %

Sleet and snow fell on the ranges between Gisborne and Opotiki, and this morning a light coating was visible on the big hill at the back of the Waioeka gorge. A good deal of snow could also be seen from the borough on the ranges down the coast.

The snow on the Waioeka hills facing Opotiki was the first seen for two years, no snOw being observed at all last year.

The Opotiki-Gisborne highway is in very bad order and other roads in the Poverty Bay district are giving a great deal of trouble. Conditions prevailing during the past fortnight have made excessive demands upon the gangs engaged by the Public Works Department to keep the main highways open, and adjustments in the road services between Gisborne ancl Tancatua, vi a . the AYaiooka, have been made with the object- of cutting down tile hours worked by these gangs to reasonable proportions. Some of the men have been working lt> hours daily keeping the highways open for traffic. At the big slip at Mahaki, the demands of traffic- have kept the men at work for very long hours. The rate at which the slip has been moving has prevented the gang from making any real impression on the mass of debris, and* the district engineer at Gisborne, Air O. G. Thornton, has commissioned the power shovel recently acquired by the AYaikoliu County Council to assist in clearing the road. The machifte will be put to work to-day, and should make a. rapid clearance sufficient to permit of free movement ef traffic.

Pending this improvement, it has been arranged that the mail trucks travelling to and from Gisborne will pass the slip in daylight. On several occasions during the past, lew days, the men working on the job have been called out in the early hours- of the morning and late at night to assist vehicles through the worst of the slip, and the adjustment- in the mail-truck schedule will relieve them of some ol these calls.

The motor service operating between Gisborne and Rotorua also will adjust its schedule, an arrangement having been made for the exchange of passengers at the slip in the case of the late trip from Rotorua. It is hoped that these adjustments will not be necessary for more than a day or two. General traffic is advised that the road is not suitable for light cars even in daylight, or for heavier machines except in daylight.

Owing to the slip at Otoko, the Public Works Department has advised the chief post office that it is impossible for the mail truck to get through at night. To-day the truck will leave Gisborne at J p.m., mail for Auckland and other northern offices closing at 2- p.m. It is hoped that the new arrangement- will he only for a day or two. Sleet fell at Toatoa, hut- snow was encountered on the Wliitikau hill by a motor-cyclist travelling from Motu. Mr Noel Gwillim. who made the trip from Opotiki to 3latawai yesterday, accompanied by Mr and Mrs J. Wilkin and family, encountered about (j inches of snow du. Trafford’s Hill atabout 1 ; o’clock in the afternoon. Never having previously been on snow before, somo of the motorists took the opportunity of having a little fun and snow fights ensued. Snow was still falling at the time. The roads generally were in a bad state and ser-vice-ear passengers )vho' arrived in Opotiki at mid-day yesterday were delayed about an hour on the load. Although the party from Opotiki found no snow at Matawai township, the surrounding hills were well coated.