THREE LIVES LOST

TRAIL' OF DAMAGE NORTH ISLAND SWEPT FLOODS BLOCK MANY ROADS HARBOUR CRAFT WRECKED A cyclonic storm which swept the whole of the North Island and the northern portion of the South Island on Saturday night and yesterday was the most severe New Zealand has experienced for many 'years. All telegraph and telephone services were broken. Roads and railways were blocked by slips and washouts and there is heavy flooding in parts. The tally of damage in unroofed houses, flooded shops, uprooted trees and market gardens and orchards laid waste will not be known for some days. Two lives were lost in the Auckland province, every corner of which suffered in the storm. A mine caretaker at Waiomo, near Thames, was killed when his hut was carried away in a slip. At Ivaitaia a young man was di'owned when his house collapsed in the flood as he was trying to salvage his furniture. A third man was killed at Palmerston North, being blown off a roof. Kaitaia, Wha,ngarei, Paeroa and Thames have suffered heavily as a result of floods. All communications with North Auckland were interrupted yesterday and the roads and railway are not expected to be clear for some days. On the Hauraki Plains and North Auckland dairy, stock .and sheep were drowned. With piled up and smashed yachts and launches, Auckland's waterfront was a desolate picture yesterday. The losses in small craft were exceptionally heavy. There is hardly a street in the city and suburbs that does not bear evidence of the storm. 1