HAURAKI PLAINS RAINFALL

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 370, 2 June 1928, Page 11

HAURAKI PLAINS RAINFALL

FLOOD DANGER LESSENED Tlio rainfall on the Hauraki Plains for the month of May, as ‘gauged at the office of the Lands Drainage Department, Kerepehi, totalled 7.52 inches, which is .01 of an inch more than the total rainfall in the previous four months of the year, and 76 per cent- above the average for the month of .May during the past 15 years. Rain was recorded, on 15 days, the heaviest falls being recorded on . May 1, when the 24-hour total Avas 2.30 inches, and on May. 28, when the gauge . showed 1.53 inches. Last month’s total has been exceeded seven times since gauging was commenced at Iverepeehi, in 1912, and two of these occasions have been in the months of May. In May, 1924, the fall was 8.55 inches, and the flood duced inundated the greater part of the Plains. Flooding was r also. caused by the S.S6 inches in May, 1926, but this year there is no sign, of flooding, and only careful observers have noted that the river has been a little higher than usual. The dry summer, the close attention given to internal drains last winter by .settlers and by the. drainage boards, and-the stop-banking and general improvement to the main outlet —the Piako River—by the Lands Drainage Department, have reduced the chances of the'Hauraki Plains being flooded to much less than many other districts. As yet the rain is welcomed by farmers, who anticipate a splendid winter. ' j.