BRIDGE WRECKED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 692, 18 June 1929, Page 11

BRIDGE WRECKED

TIMBER COMPANY SUED COUNCILS CLAIM DAMAGES The bridge connecting Thames Borough and County over the Kauaeranga River, which was almost completely swept away during a flood on May 17, 1924, figured prominently in an action heard by Mr. Justice Kennedy in the Supreme Court today. The Thames Borough and. County Councils joined in claiming £2,767 from the Kauri Timber Company, Ltd., of Auckland, for renewing the structure. It was claimed that the company had been felling kauri timber in the Kauaeranga Valley and floating it down the river, and that as a result of these operations the bridge was partially destroyed during the flood. The company generally denied floating logs down the river or being responsible for the damage. Mr. J. Hogben represented the plaintiffs and Mr. A. H. Johnstone, with him Mr. J. B. Johnston, appeared for the defendant company. Henry Low, chairman of the Thames County* Council, and a former Mayor of Thames, stated that the Kauri Timber Company had a log boom on the river 10 or 12 miles above the bridge. The council subsequently applied to Mr. Clayton, the company’s manager, for compensation for the damage, but liability was denied. He admitted that the structure was 40 years of age and that a new one was necessary. The new bridge had actually been started before the old one was swept away. He confessed having reported to the council that no reliable evidence could be obtained to support a claim against the company. Walter Thomas Onions, who witnessed the flood from the bridge at 6.30 a.m., said that heavy logs were swirling down, striking the structure heavily and lifting the stringers, coming to rest on the banks further down.

Suddenly there was a rending crash of timber, said witness, who ran from his home to the road to see 10ft of the structure swept away with heavy logs and a punt behind it. Henry John Trethowan said he moored a punt contaning 36 tons of metal on the eastern side of the river four chains above the bridge the night before the flood, securing it with ropes and an anchor. He received a warning to move the vessel too late, and the punt broke its moorings the following morning.

An eye-witness’ of the wrecking of the bridge. Thomas Phillips, caretaker of the racecourse, said hat the. heavy kauri logs batered the barge and bumped heavily into the structure, which finally sagged away. The punt broke away at this moment, and following in the wake of the logs, rode over the structure and turned turtle. Leslie Deeble, on whose property the flood deposited a number of logs, said that the defendant company had paid compensation. (Proceeding!