FARMS FLOODED AT RANGIRIRI

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28099, 15 October 1956, Page 7

FARMS FLOODED AT RANGIRIRI

BOATS USED FOR TRANSPORT MINERS WADE MILES TO CATCH BUS (New Zeuiana Press Association) AUCKLAND, October 14. Farmers rowed boats across paddocks in flood-stricken Rangiriri today. To bring in groceries, Messrs D. J. and R. G. Skiffington, whose farm is on the Glen Murray road, poled a punt across their hay paddock to their house. One hundred acres of the 200acre farm is under deep water, and the Skiffingtons’ cattle have been driven to the comparative safety of the main road.

The Glen Murray road itself was submerged to a depth of one foot in eight places near Rangiriri today. Thousands of acres of the surrounding countryside have been -converted into a lake, and many farms are seriously affected. It may be three weeks before they dry out. Like the farmers, coalminers living in the Rangiriri district have been badly affected by the 1 oods. A bus proprietor who drives the men to Huntly every day, has ”'een unable to negotiate the Horahora road to collect his passengers. As a result, the miners have been wading up to two miles through flood waters to catch the bus each morning.

Though all the areas flooded at Rangiriri last June and July are again under water, the floods s ave not been so devastating this time. Mercer, to the north of Rangiriri, has escaped much more lightly than previously. Water lapped the Great South road near Mercer on Saturday, but at no stage was the highway seriously threatened. \ — =