TRAFFIC RESUMES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 875, 20 January 1930, Page 16

TRAFFIC RESUMES

LINE CLEAR IN MANAWATU GORGE COMPLAINTS BY PASSENGERS Special to THE SUN PALMERSTON N„ Today. The big slip in the Manawatu Gorge has been cleared sufficiently to allow of a resumption of the railway service between Manawatu and Hawke’s Bay, although it will be two or three weeks before the debris is completely removed. A great scar 750 ft long on the green face of the hillside in a bend in the river about three miles from Woodvllle, starting from about 250 ft above the river level, shows where 3,000 tons of rock and clay, loosened by the heavy rains, descended in a mighty avalanche. A portion of the face of the cliff high above the river seems to have been dislodged and to have plunged down the steeply sloping hillside, gouging out a great path as it moved, and burying the railway line before continuing over the embankment into the river 60ft below. Slips that have so far occurred have buried the railway track under a mass of debris that reached the overhead telegraph wires, a great slippery mud slide with here and there gaunt faces of hard rock peering through. The clay has been carved out, and this debris has been hurtling down to the river. A great mass estimated to contain 25,000 to 30,000 cubic yards of spoil still threatens the line from high up the hillside, and this mass will have to be cleared away before conditions will be back to normal. Rubble is now being cleared away by sluicing. A spill-way has been made, consisting of a deep channel in the hillside, which will pass under the railway line and through which spoil will be sluiced to the river by hosing with strong jets of water. The clearing of the slip, which has broken off communication along a most important section of the line, will come as a relief to the Railway Department, which has spent hundreds of pounds a day to restore conditions to normal. A great deal of goods traffic has accumulated in the Palmerston North yards and the position was becoming critical. Perishable goods were taken through the gorge by motor-lorry and other goods, instead of making the journey to Hawke’s Bay direct from Palmerston North, were taken hundreds of extra miles via Wellington and the Wairarapa. About 200 passengers have been taken through the gorge by ear each day. Complaints have been voiced by passengers at being charged for this car journey, the opinion being expressed that, -if the service fails the department and not the public should have to pay for the failure It is understood that on Friday and Saturday passengers were advised by the department as to the position Holiday-makers travelling on return tickets issued prior to the slip consider the department’s treatment unfair.