RAIN IN FAR NORTH

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 22, 26 July 1927, Page 10

RAIN IN FAR NORTH

EXTENSIVE DAMAGE REPORTED

(By Teleflraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.")

AUCKLAND, This Day. I lie heaviest floods and rainfall known for thirty years have been experienced in the Far North. At Kaitaia the rainfall since the beginning of July up to this morning was 10 22 iQ9reS<T^° mgai'ed With 4J5 inches 'in j.»<so. j.ne flood water commenced to overrun the country last evening, and by midnight the whole of tho flat land surrounding Kaitaia was converted into a lake with a stream running from twenty to twenty-five knots at the outlet, lences floated off in all directions. Thousands of pounds of damage has been done in this portion of theMangonui county, apart from loss of household property. The water brok-3 across Greenmeadows and flooded the whole of the country on each side of the town as far as Commerce street and the Kaitaia Lake. On the southern side of the lake the road assumed the appearance of a running river, and properties on the left, facing the lake, were inundated. Five houses had water several feet deep inside them at i o'clock this morning, and not a blade of grass is to be seen in that area. '

Had the spillway now being constructed by the Land Department for tho purpose of relieving Kaitaia from flood menace been completed, it would have prevented the situation.

Oruru, Fairburn, and Pcria have suffered considerably as the result of last night's flood. "The water reached the decking of the bridges on the Kaitaia-Maunganui road. Miles of boundary fences are down. At Peria half a hillsido came down. The bridge leading to the Courthouse at Eeban, Kaitaia, was washed away.