ALMOST NORMAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 147, 23 June 1934, Page 12

ALMOST NORMAL.

FLOODS RECEDING.

POSITION IN PROVINCE.

RAILWAYS REPAIRED. With the cessation of rain •. morally throughout the province, and the clearing of the weather, flood waters continue to recede rapidly, and in most places conditions are practically normal again. Nearly all roads, both north and south of Auckland, are now negotiable, though perhaps at minor inconvenience. Not all main routes can be taken by motor vehicles, as in a few cases bridges are damaged, but in all cases detours are available.

Railway communication is normal again. The damaged section of the permanent way between Te Arolia and Paeroa, or more particularly between Tirohia and Waitoki, was repaired about 8 p.m. yesterday, and the usual schedule was followed to-day. Routes Negotiable. A general report received by the Automobile Association stated that though there was still some water loft on roads in one or two districts, all'routes were negotiable, and 110 community was isolated. The last areas to become clear of water are some parts of the Hauraki Plains and the Bay of Plenty. Roads round Paeroa and To Aroha are still under a little water, but they aro no longer impassable. The same is true of I the Bay of Plenty, although, as that area was among the last to be flooded, it will be among the last to become entirely clear again. All routes to the north of Wliangarei are now negotiable. There, as elsewhere, the position is almost normal. In Wliangarei itself the. Hikurangi swamp, though still flooded, is not seriously so, while pastures are rapidly showing again. Loss of stock is feared, but in the absence of the taking of any census exact figures are not known.

Department Blamed. Settlers in the Orini and Te Hoe districts, which lie at the back of Taupiri, blame the situation there on to the Public Works Department. Through those districts run the two streams which, caused the flooding, the Mangawara and the Tauhei. Settlers allege that the Department used the wrong methods in clearing and widening the two streams, on which work the unemployed were engaged. There were married men's camps in the neighbourhood, and it was those camps which suffered the worst from the flooding. It was stated that while the two Waikato River tributaries were cleaned and broadened for some miles up past the place whfere they united, not a shovel of earth was taken from below the forks. Consequently, when the flooding started in the back country, it came down much faster than usual, but could not get away correspondingly quickly, but was just banked up. One farmer said that the districts had seen much heavier rain in the past few years, but no flood had resulted. Work below the forks of the j Mangawara and the Tauhei should be! commenced immediately, he thought I otherwise the districts were going to be subject to floods throughout the winter.