The Recent Gale.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 92, 18 December 1913, Page 5

The Recent Gale.

WIDESPREAD EFFECTS.

ROAD AND RAILWAY SLIPS. Inc gale which raged on Hieschn and which blew itself out yesterday seems to have been pretty general throughout the West Coast district, and there Is every indication, Irom reports received from other centres, that the wind was quite as severe elsewhere as it was here. One consolation Stratford has is that it has not suffered so greatly from the effects of the gale as have other piaees. ‘ It was last night before proper telegraphic communication was established between Wellington and New Plymouth, and up till then all messages for northern Taranaki had to come \ia Auckland. At Patoa on Tuesday a total rainfall of 2.54 in. was registered. In the Patoa County most of the backblock roads are blocked with slips, the Waitotara \ alley Road having suffered most severely. Naturally the hackblocks mail services are also much interrupted.

Act Wanganui on Tuesday there was exceptional!} heavy rain, resulting in washouts on the roads and slips on the railway, big slips coming down on the railway at W angaeliu, .Brunswick and ivai Iwi. As a result train passengers had to leave the train at Vl angaehu and coach lor some distance, lonnocting with . a train despatched from the north. The train passing through Stratford in the middle of the lay did not get past the slips, but for .he convenience of northward passengers a special train was run from Ha.vera to N'ew Plymouth on the delayed trains time. The mail train, similarly, did not pass through Stratford till 0.30 pmi.

The town ol Martoii is badly flooded and at Martou Junction some flooding has occurred. A big slip occurred on the Main Trunk railway, near Cliff Road, a few miles north, which it was expected would take some eight hours to clear.

The continued rains are delaying f irming operations in the Feilding district, hut though the streams are in flood no serious damage is reported.

Palmerston reports that the continu'd rains have clone damage to crops Tinning into thousands of pounds. It was reported this morning that ■olographic communication between Stratford and New Plymouth was inerrupted.