THERE'S A LANDSLIDE CLOSE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 121, 17 October 1941, Unnumbered Page

THERE'S A LANDSLIDE CLOSE

BEHIND US! W ee I heard that as a result of the recent storm, Mrs. Law of Wellington Terrace had a landslide in her kitchen, I just had to go up to see it. The kitchen is, after all, a rather vital part -of the house, and having a landslide in possession must seriously interfere with the smooth running of the meal programme, But when I got there, all that remained of the landslide inside the kitchen was a bulging bank of earth where the kitchen window had once been, a bank festooned with trails of ivy that were painoncy: adapting themselves to their : new environment. : \"We were having afternoon tea," said Mrs. Law, "when I heard a rather loud scraping noise, I thought it was merely : the scraping of branches across the roof. Then came a steady rumble, like thunder, I went to the kitchen to look out the window, and saw the top of our bank beginning to move downwards. I bundled my small boy out of the kitchen

and in to the front of the house. Then came a crash that shook the house and the crack of splintering glass as the window gave inwards. "When the noise had stopped, I ventured back into the kitchen. Earth and water were flooding in. The whole place . was awash with mud. But two of my neighbours came to help, and we got the mud cleared in three hours. Of course, everything’s rather disorganised, even now-" she pointed to the rows of groceries stacked up on the dining toom floor-‘‘you have to have the light on in the kitchen, and you can’t get out of the back door or store anything in the kitchen in case it rains again, but otherwise everything’s quite all right." "What are you going to do about it?" I asked. The sight of the landslide leering from the window frame disconcerted me. "We're waiting for the council to come and fix it," said Mrs, Law, cheerfully, "Meanwhile, we’re just hoping for fine .weather."

M.

B.