DESTRUCTIVE GALE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2679, 12 September 1889, Page 2

DESTRUCTIVE GALE.

A CHURCH BLOWN DOWN.

| BY TELEGRAPH. — I'll ESS ASSOCIATION'.]

CmtISTCIII-liUll, Wednesday. A IIUAVY north-west gale blow hero fur a few hours last night, and reports arc coining to hand of considerable damage in tliu country districts. In North Canterbury the gale appears to have been particularly heavy. At Ambcrley, the Church of Holy Innocents was completely wrecked, the tower alone being left standing. At Kaiapoi, the roof of the drying-room in the Kaiapoi Factory was partly smashed, and work was suspended this morning. Tn the Rangiora and surrounding districts the wind for an hour blew with hurricane force. Large quantities of flax at Chinnery's mills were blown away, and the wool shed at Chapman's, Spring Bank, was unroofed and crumpled up like paper. One or two buildings and waiting-mums on the'

railway line were lifted off their foundations, and that at Oust was wrecked against a fence on the opposite side of the line. The Wesleyan Church at Sefton was displaced from the piles, and the Star and (iarter Hotel, at Waikara, was partly unroofed. Many chimneys were blown down in the same district, and, as a matter of course, the telegraph lines are interrupted. A large amount of trifling damage was done to private houses. In Lyttelton the severest loss is to No. S, a big shed on the Gladstone pier ; a large piece of roof was ripped off, and the rafters and beams were snapped like carrots, the shed generally being much strained. Telegraphic communi ation south of Christchurch is still interrupted. Auckland, Wednesday. A stiff gale was blowing all day in Auckland. There was no damage done in the harbour. W KLr.lNfrrns', Wednesday. The north-west gale which sprung up on Monday night gave out at noon to-day, when the wind suddenly chopped round to the south, accompanied by rain. [I'-ROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT], Tk Aroha, Wednesday. Commodore Edwin's forecast last week of a strong easterly gale, with heavy rain, turned out correct. The gale began on Fiiday, and continued without abatement throughout the night, and Saturday, and spent itself that evening. The river is greatly swollen, and some cattle thereby have been washed away and drowned. The damage to property has heen inconsiderable, and not to be compared with that done by the last storm. Fears were entertained that the Roman Catholic Church would have been disestablished from its earthly foundations and blown to Jericho, but fortunately the building was shored up in time, and has weathered the storm.