SYDNEY GETS HER FEET WET

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 29, 27 April 1927, Page 9

SYDNEY GETS HER FEET WET

SHOW AND RACES, POSTPONED OTHER HAPPENINGS (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, April 22. This has been a week of storm and disaster in New South Wales. Not for many years has such a tempestuous Easter been experienced and never have so many calamities been recorded ashore and afloat. On Thursday before Easter, the day the Duke and Duchess departed, a cyclone developed and drenched the State. While the Renown sailed away into sunshine and smooth seas, all other shipping appears to have been buffeted badly, and as a climax on Sunday night the well-known steamer Riverina went ashore at Gabo. It was all very disturbing and depressing, but when the second cyclone came along everyone realised that the first half of their misfortunes was not the worst. For forty-eight hours a gale of 64-mile velocity shrieked over Sydney, smashing and flooding everywhere. HELP FOR THE RIVERINA There is something pathetic in the way all Australia seems to look to Sydney for a lead in shipping matters. In the case of the stranded Riverina, no move was made to send tugs from Melbourne, though they would have had a fair -wind to the scene of the stranding. Instead two powerful tugs were started out from Sydney to fight a howling tempest for 238 miles. One had to give up the battle. The other dodged from port to port and got there four days after the Riverina went ashore. Another matter on which some strong comment is being made is the fact that no tug is kept ready for such a call or salvage equipment provided at any port but Sydney. When the call came from the Riverina, a tug’s crew had to be gathered, the tug coaled and the gear put on board. It took 22 hours to get her to sea. And then, before she got to Eden, 200 miles south, she was told to call there and land the salvage gear which was to be sent overland to the beach where the Riverina lies. Had the gear been sent overland in the first place, it would have reached the beach two days earlier. Tugs from Melbourne could have been there to help in the work. Captain Parry, of the Riverina. has had absolutely no help at all up to date, and every seafaring man here speaks very highly of his cool judgment in keeping the passengers on board, and his seamanship in keeping his ship going as an entity of human importance when fresh water was running low, sanitary services impaired by sand and a hundred other worries cropping up every day —and all the time the seas pounding on her while the help he needed was being baulked by the gale and unreadiness. OUTSIDE THE HEADS

Anyone who has looked out from South Head in a storm will never forget the sight of miles of long, tossing seas, like moving mountains which rise and burst in sheets of spray and foam when they strike the cliffs. Out ir. that inferno of water, this last few days ships have been standing off and on, afraid to venture near the buttressed gateways of Sydney’s harbour entrance —coal running short, crew's nerves on edge, and always the shrieking wind and the lurching seas. On the mission schooner John Williams, which had been battling down the coast for days, a Gilbert Islander went berserk and killed and wounded men with a razor. A hundred miles out the steamer Mungana damaged her rudder, and became another sea casualty, needing aid. Last night the tug St. Olaves towed her into port. The Iron Baron, one of the stout freighters which stood by the Riverina, went amissing for days, and hopes of her safety were almost abandoned, but to-day she had been reported at Melbourne. Yesterday, the Baron Ardrossan came into port but was unable to anchor because her anchors had been lost in a titanic struggle off Port Kembla, when the storm threatened to hurl her on to the rocks. By sheer seamanship she fought her way to sea and limped into Sydney for repairs. Truly on j this cliff-bound coast, when a south erly storm breaks loose, it rages like a horde of demons outside the rocky gates of the ports. And within the harbours the tally of small craft lost and lives, too, is heart-breaking. THE, EVER-INVITING SHOW * Not all the storms or floods could keep the public away from their beloved Royal Agricultural Show. On Good Friday, with rain pelting down, 67,000 people attended. Of course, the country people now in Sydney have to go somewhere, but there were as many city people there, and they seemed to enjoy themselves. The postponement of the Randwick meeting was a blow to many, but it was unavoidable, for the whole country was a sheet of water, with more of it falling from the clouds in torrents. Electric lines were down, telephones put out of order, trees up-rooted, roofs and walls blown down. In New Zealand they build to withstand big winds, but here gales are so rare* that sometimes the light material will not stand the test and then there is a mess of twisted iron, broken bricks and splintered wood. One outstanding feature was that while main roads to north and south and telegraphiclines to Melbourne were blocked, the railways kept running all the time, a tribute to a system which is too often maligned. Now these arteries of New South Wales are bearing thousands of country folk back to their farms, where they will talk of the show for another year, till the next one comes along. MR. LANG GETTING ANGRY AVhether it is due to the storm or not, nobody knows, but Mr. Lang is getting more angry every day. “Reds” and anti-Reds and obstreperous Ministers have got on his nerves to such an extent that yesterday he had an “Evening News” parliamentary reporter removed from his office by the police, because the papers had printed some keen criticism of the Labour Party. The affair has caused an unpleasant feeling everywhere, because it suggests a dictatorial attitude which will never be tolerated in Australia. In fact, in some quarters it is claimed that Mr. Lang represents a section of intolerants, who want to force their views on the public. With the elections so near at hand, the situation is causing much confusion in the minds of simple electors who cannot sort out the various brands of Labourites with any degree of certainty. A remarkable feature is the silence of the Opposition, but they are working all the time and the elections may cause an upset which will surprise more than the Labour Party. WILL LAWSON.