THE SOUTHERN FLOODS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 167, 14 July 1908, Page 5

THE SOUTHERN FLOODS.

REPAIRING TELEGRAPH LINE. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, Monday. Mr E. Shrimptbh, telegraphic electrician for the Christchurch district, returned yesterday after, a stay of some days at Waiau, where he was in charge of a gang of six men sent up to -effect temporary repairs to the telegraph line in that district. Communication between Christchurch arid the North Island is maintained by five wires, which pass through the Waiau district, and also by other wires via Greymouih. On Tuesday it was found that, the seventeen miles of wires between Waiau and the Upper Mason had been loaded down with snow to such an extent that not three spans of wires were unbroken, and the railway iron poles were badly bent. In one section of four miles at Hell Gate, twenty-six poles were bent. At-" tempts were made in some cases to uproot faulty posts, but they snapped off owing to the frosty weather. The cold was intense, and the men, who all worked like Trojans, were wet through and shivering with the cold. At one place the party had to make its way through a snow-covered swamp, and when trying to find secure foothold on Nigger Heads, one man fell into 5 feet of mingled snow and slush.