WILD WEATHER.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 112, 13 May 1926, Page 10

WILD WEATHER.

VESSELS IN DISTRESS. RADIO MAST DEMOLISHED. (By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.") WELLINGTON, this day. Wellington winds have destroyed a leading feature in the city's skyline. The steel mast carrying Wellington's radio on the top of Tinakori Hill was blown down during a terrific gust yesterday afternoon. The mast was of steel, lattice constructed, and was made by an American firm. It was 165 feet high, and was erected in 1823 to replace two wooden masts which were taken down for fear of collapse in heavy weather. The steel mast had wire bracings and a base of 20 feet square and it was bolted to concrete foundations. Soon after 2 o'clock, during the height of a storm from the north-west, one of the windward holding bolts sheered off during the heavy swaying of the lofty mast. This so weakened the structure that the other bolts sheared, and the mast crashed, fortunately quite clear of the wireless house in which four operators and the superintendent were employed. Weather conditions had been abnormal since the previous night, when Sydney Radio issued a broadcast warning of a cyclone which had its centre off Jervis Bay. An S.O.S. message from the steamer Eastern Moon, which had lost its propeller 440 miles south of Sydney, was picked up. also details of a dredger in trouble off the New South Wales coast. Though the gale was not really severe in Wellington, there were occasional terrific gusts, which caused the damage. Postal engineers immediately set about the erection of a temporary mast, with which they can maintain communication with vessels off the coast.