SYDNEY SAVED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 206, 1 September 1938, Page 23

SYDNEY SAVED.

torrenti^P&ainF WATER SUPPLY ASSURED.; HoepiTAx notim- eu*. (Prom Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 26. Six nights and five days of heavy continuous rain have presented Sydney with an extra nine months' Wa ter supply. There aro now i n the dams 05.,,00.000,000 g all olle of.water. So t"e threatened shortage Sβ over and the lmn on the u*e ofchoses for gard ™ "! ha* been lifted. Duri" the last two .fays water waa the h\e dams on the Illawarta ranees at t .P rate of 150,000,000 gallons anTour that means that every hour 15 days' viitor was being stored. Australia ie a land in which Nature never does anything by halves, and after all the talk of the poseible city drought, U months hence, that fear vanished in a phenomenal downpour whic* caused tlip Bong Bong R,ver in tlie catchment area to buret its. banks and drive residents from their homes. The flood waters rose eight feet over the banks, swirled across the main road, and stopped all traffic between Moss Vale Bowinl and Mittagong. Now that Sydney's wnter supply is njrain safe the wise-after-the-evrtit critics are already attacking the : Water Board, which they accuse of having become panic-etricken in enforcing the ban with only twelve months' supply of wnter in the dams. But this is merely the eame silly kind of criticism with which Jellicoe was hounded after the war for not having risked the outcome of that struggle for the sake of a legend variously known as the Nelson" 3 or Bcatty touch. The fact is that it k always possible (however unlikely) that the Sydney catchment area may go more than twelve months without any rain at all. and considering the upheaval which really drastic later restrictions on the use of water in a modern city would have caused, most people would agree that the Water Board was right in taking no chances. At any rate it has announced that it will not slacken off with the work on the Warragamba pipeline which, in September next year, ■will bring another 40.006,000 gallons of water every day to the city. Hospital Scandal. One unexpected result of the downpour yr&e to uncover a hospital "scandal." At Bulli, on the eouth coast, there is a hospital with 3000 subscribers, but only nine beds' for men, and it is supposed tp serve a wide district in -which are many railway and steel workers and miners. For more than three days the hospital was more or loss under water, which flowed through the wards in a stream two inches deep. A serious operation wae performed with rain pouring into the theatre on surgeons, nurses, patient, and equipment, and the patient after the operation had to be left in a ward' in the same flooded condition.

The .doctors and the matron called attention in very plain words to what they called a public scandal, and one of the medical staff went so far as to say bluntly that there were 13 people in Bulli who should be in hospital, one of whom would probably die for want of attention',, and that, the hospital had been neglected because Bulli was not a Government stronghold. The .Govern,-! ment, ]«• euf#, 4 three years agro to improW not%ing had bee.ii rlone. This unusual attack on a Government professional .etaff of a hospital is not likely to be allowed to rest at that.

A farmhand, aged 45, had a remark-' able ordeal during the height of the etorni. He had left a train at a courftry station 4nd wa« walking over the railway bridge, 20tt ab/ove aCcEeek which had been swollen by the* flood waters. In the darkness lie slipped between the* sleepers' and fell into the. creek, into three feet of water.

In the full lie broke hie hip, as well •8 suffering other injuries. On all fours, with hie chin touching the water, he made a desperate attempt in the darkness (it was after 7 p.m.) to crawl up a ■even foot embankment'out of reach of the water. With hie hands he scratched holes in the earth with which to get a grip to pull himeelf up. Three times he' made the attempt and three times fell back. The nearest house was a mile away, and all tie night his cries for help went unheard. At nine o'clock next morning a man went under the bridge to look for dry firewood, saw the injured man. and hurried to his aid. "Thank GodU you mave come," the injured man said. "I ktve been calling,-out for help until I have lost my voice." By this time' the creek had risen and file man' was lying' with part of his legs submerged. The rescuer-'got his Bates and tog*otr they carried the Ban a quarter WrS mile to'thfe fea ambulance which took hiin to hosP ttel - ~: I