FACTS OF THE MISHAP.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1915, Page 4

FACTS OF THE MISHAP.

Auckland, later. r.arl.crac. omits of the i.u'shap, taken Irnni a late edition ( ,f the evening paner, : prove t« liiivr- I>o,-n mud, exaggerated. ' lln- facts as telegraphed by the" Herald'* 'laiiinaritnui correspondent arc that a long train, drawn l.y tw„ powerful engines, left Tnrmiininui for tlie north shortly after two o'clock, and neariv three miles further on had to cross what the railway authorities, apparently already regarded as a dangerous place. Owing to the rise of the Ongarue Kiver, the eulvert had become blocked and water was foreed into an old watercourse and partly washed away, amt softened the low railway embankment crossing this water-course, and also softened the .lilling under the sleepers in the immediate vicinity. The train was goins dead slow, approached, and partly eroK.-ed this plaee, and then the lino subsided and eanted. The two enaineg and the mail van following them rolled slowly over on to their sides, ami the train came to a stop without .much shock. Not a bolt of the engines has been disarranged, and there is only the question of putting them back on to the line again. The e.ngincman jumped from the first eiiijine, and the fireman jumped, from the second, but the driver and district engineer (Mr. Jefiares) were rolled over in tlie cab of the (second engine, and two postal clerks had a similar experience in the mail van. Xone of the men were Injured. ; The .south-bound express from Auck- : land has reached within n. few miles of ' the scene of derailment, and hopes are . entertained that the section of the line lietween the two will he workable (shortly. The rains have ceased, and Tivere ■ "re subsiding, but reports of considerable damage by floods ane still coming , in from hnek blocks beyond Taimwunui ■ and Tc .Kuiti'.

fiKX-KRAI, .MAXAfiEITS .STATEMENT. Wellington, Last Night. The following stflitcmont ijnom the Oiieial Manager of Haihvuvs was issued at 10 o'clock to-night: "'After arranging to tranship passengers, it was found that the southbound express could not get within two miles of the northbound and transhipping had to be abandoned. Passengers in the northbound' are being brought hack to Taumanimri.' The southbound passengers are at Okahukura. There is a dining-car and also eighty passengers on the- train. Passengers wlio reached Te Kniti from Tailmarmiui this morning are still at Te Kuiti, and the last advice is that there is no prospect of getting to Frankton to-night. All trains between Taumarumii and Frankton are suspended. The line sonth of Taitmaninui is cleaK Evidently a slip at Puketutu has come down again after the passing, of tho southbonnd train, shutting that twin in between Taringamntti and Puketutu."