REPORTS FROM AUCKLAND

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 83, 7 April 1924, Page 8

REPORTS FROM AUCKLAND

VERY HEAVY; RAINFALL

fj;'"^WHABVES AND BRIDGES .:■ ■'■ WASHED A"WAY,

---!*■ (SI TELEGRAPH.—?EI63 ASSOCIATIO».) 1 ■|, c AUCKt AND,{,6th" ipriL'. ' ' jßoports'frond'tße country indicate the ' seyerity of the floods.'' The '"H;erald's" : .V^hibianga correspondent r .says that it • wpuli>> appear ;tha.t%-'cloudburst struck. ' tlie Coromandel rang'a';ori the Mercury- } B|y 'side, j arid} sent'a huge, volume-of '' ' vater down the various streams.. A number of bridges were' Bwept away, and 'several settlers ,'lost. stock... The rain 1 his continued at Helensvillo, and a ■ bteakdown gang is doing'great work in ' clearing the railway of obstructions ' -nftder difficult conditions.' , : vThe Waimauku is flooded, and the rain is still falling; Ther,e one bee-keep-ec: had an apiary of 60 hives washed away; '■ . ■;..■ :..':■ ■ ;.; ..■ ' v . ' The heaviest rrainfall on' Thursday fell oyer.an area of. about.Booo acres, estending from .Silverdala to Just" beyond Puhejwaiid-.baiekllto>th«-neighbourhood i of the North A"^lfew^ . MJUn-Triiak \

railway through the Kaipara . district. This • area includes the watersheds of the Wade, Waiwera,, and Puhoi Rivers, which flow through steep country in somewhat narrow gorges. The gre.atest havoc to pasture- was caused on the Wainui, a tributary of the Waiwera, and the country between that and Kaipara. By observation, but without official rain gauges, it was estimated that the rainfall in the Wainui district in about seven hours of t'« height of the flood amounted to; more than fifteen' inches. All through the area' indicated every hill is' excoriated with slips, amounting in total to well over 1000 acres. Every important' bridge has been.swept away," and in every valley the roads are blocked by slips.' • 'Dairy farming'is the universal indus,try, and over a great extent of' the, country the settlers are unable to gettheir cream to the dairy factories, and, see no prospect of early arrangement to' ( enable it to. be'done. Two families in upper l ■, Waiwera :.-': district/ ■ that ■ of Rex Howell, of Wainui, and Mrs, Mealei. of Waiwera," whose houses are near the. riverbank, only escaped at ' a " critical stage when there were several .'feet of water,> around their' dwellings, and it was.ahnost necessary to 'swim. .. ' Two roadmen named' Eagleson and Newman, working in the same district, had to swim for their lives' from their residence. ..Juhoi, the township centre of: the old Bohemian settlement ,near the East" Coast, - about 30 miles ' north qf Auckland, has suffered mqst severely.' The river rose rapidly1 at one period !to the extent of 17 feet .in 40 minutes,- and Hooded township. A new wharf store .was swept away, containing about £500 worth! of goods just landed. The"public library was washed'out with about £200 worth', of:,new . books, and about; ;ip0,000.--"feet-;ofv.bulk'.. and. sawn timber..was carried out" to sea:- ■„.'/ • .; More ..serious ./for . the. . provinbe .-is' ,the fact .;that"the .drawbridge, iri the 'course', of-.:r'econstruction on the Great :^prth;.'rbad,; close .to. the .'township, was :destroyed,, and -will) block tlie main line' ]oj;'mpt'of; traffic':fqr. ; - ' "•'■ ■ ■ rCojJrageo'us-;- acts-, .'wgre-^-perfonnea within a.few minutes by a?young man named Victor Schishka: He Warn three' times horrent to\'rescue from-.drowning.-;the' postmaster >named Scholium,. and!/ James '.Titford, - senior. and'junior, who. had: "lingered in busi* ; noss_premises, until .there. was over seven teet of water "on their' floors. . ; ' ■" ' -. , Altogether. ; it(; is .estimated ' that the damage ;in PuKoi; township, reaches"to' between-£25,000 and £30,0)0. *' \-' ''■ -Ti I.'' -; AXJGKLA^I]D' This Day-V' Ihree hundred dairy farmfers in Lower ■Kaipara have been' completely isolated' from the factory, at Helehsville, and u'n^ able. to. get their cream there 'since' i^l^" 8 '- ■Thi^: o^'.is equal to £480. daily. There has ■ been no Venous loss of .stock reported so far, though several.herds are known :W be "isolated. ,'-