RAISED FROM FLOODS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 88, 15 April 1939, Page 10

RAISED FROM FLOODS

YEAR-EOUND TRAFFIC

GENERAL APPROVAL

WHIROKINO BRIDGE OPENED

(By Telegraph.) (From "The Post's" Special Reporter.)

FOXTON, This Day.

The Whirokino trestle bridge was officially opened by the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. K. Semple, this morning, and Foxton is making the day a holiday, for the work ends periodic delays and traffic troubles from the flooding of the Manawatu River and the inundation of the wide stretch of flat immediately north of the traffic bridge. The comI pletion of the trestle bridge and long embankment has made' the main highway through the North Island an allweather route throughout its length.

Mr. W. E. Barber, chairman of Manawatu County Council, expressed the warm appreciation of the ratepayers of the county and settlers of the district as a whole that the problem had been undertaken as a national' one, relieving them of direct financial liability. The maintenance of the road across the river flat had been a nightmare to "the county for years and the district owed to the Government a deep debt of gratitude.

Mr. L. G. Lowry, member of Parliament for Otaki, congratulated the Minister and officers and men of the Public Works Department upon the improvement effected throughout New Zealand and the contractor and men upon the manner in which the Whirokino trestle bridge, a unique conception and construction, had been carried out.

Mr. J. G. Cobbe, the member for Manawatu, said that, though the travelling public would be great gainers from the trestle bridge, the settlers about the Manawatu flats had suffered greatly from flooding of their farm lands and the heavy machinery used by the Public Works Department today could be nowhere used to better return than in cutting a straight course for the river to the sea.

The hope that the Government would in the near future undertake the essential work of draining and safeguarding the lower Manawatu basin was also expressed by Mr. A. Gimblett, representing the Horowhenua County. Whatever might be one's political^ outlook, said Mr. Gimblett, one must acknowledge the outstanding achievements'of the Public Works Department under Government encouragement and the able guidance of the officers of the Department and the Main Highways Board.