BRIDGE OVER HAWKINS RIVER WANTED

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21577, 13 September 1935, Page 22

BRIDGE OVER HAWKINS RIVER WANTED

TO THX ZDITOS Or THE PMS3. Sir, —The recent storm and the resultant flooding of rivers in Canterbury have once again brought about the ridiculous and unnecessary situation of isolation which occurs frequently every winter and spring, to the residents of the Homebush and the Hawkins districts. Several years ago the train service on the Whitecliffs branch line included a daily passenger service and carried most of the mail for these districts. Today a mixed goods-passenger train runs three times a week and the mail is brought by bus or is distributed ay rural mail delivery. The bulk of the work the railway gets on the line is seasonal except -for a little coal and pottery, and it is remarkable that 3s coal-mining increases in the Coalgate district, so does the number of motorlorries carting coal. When the Hawkins and the Waireka rivers are in high flood residents of Hawkins and some in Greendaie, in order to get to Christchurch by car, have to come right back to the bridge over the Wairejta on the DarfieidGlentunnel main road at Homebush; then back to the Selwyn bridge at Coalgate, then on via Hororata and Dunsandel, crossing the ielwyn again at Selwyn. Or Instead of crossing the Selwyn at Coalgate, they have to take the Bush Gully road back to Sheflield to cross the Hawkins there. The reasoh Tor this is that the Hawkins has no traffic bridge lower than the one on the Homebush-Waddington road •which, in any sort of a flood at all, ;s useless, being unapproachable in flood time! The amount of traffic over this bridge at any time is not very great, but on the main Christchurch-Glen-tunnel road, which crosses the Hawjans river at Hawkins, the traffic is constant and of some importance. Besides ordinary tratnc, there are the Lake Coleridge and the Whiteclifts buses which carry the mail for their districts and also (this is wnere X drag in my special little complaint) the rural mau car for Hawkins and Homebush, which flood times does not get nearer to us from Darfleld than the Hawkins river. .., .

And yet, right at this important river-crossing is a good, sound yet little-used railway bridge. The Railway Department has just spent a considerable sum on repairing this bridge and oh strengthening its approaches, in these times when the country is carrying such a load of public debt, wh.v cannot the Highways Board or the county council or whoever is responsible combine with the Railway Department and have these almost idle bridges brought to a maximum of utility by putting a decking and sid<irajis on and opening them to general traffic? The heed tor this to be done at-Hawkins is especially obvious, • ai:d I hope these facts may impress the more, practical-minded amongst those concerned to see that something is done soon.

Is it because there is an immediate possibility of a new traffic bridge being built at Hawkins, or is it because our local bodies are unable to co-operate owing to inefficiency or short-sighted-ness of petty differences, that the proposition I am advocating has not already been carried out?— Yours, etc., 1 DOUGLAS G. BROUGHTON. i Darfield, September 10, 1935.

. jSO THB BDITOB OV TBB JMSS. 1 Sir,—After yesterday's rains I feel that I must write and call the attention of the Government and the Unemployment Board as to the state of the riverbed below the bridge at Waddington. The riverbed is full of willows and gorse and other rubbish. As it is a very windy river, it floods its banks very easily. I think myself, and others, too, that it is a work that would keep the unemployed for a long time, and inoney would be well spent in clearing the course of the river and

letting the flood waters away. Last night it was given out over the wireless that cars had had to come round Waddington to cross the Hawkins river, which was impassable on account of about four feet six inches of water running over the road alongside the bridge. If the cars wanted to get over .they would have had to go round Sheffield, over the big bridge along the valley road, about eight miles further to go. I would like to know what are the feelings of other people who have been caught and had to turn round and go back where they came from.—Yours, etc., ONE OF THEM. September 12, 1935.