ROUGH WEATHER.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 20 November 1924, Page 5

ROUGH WEATHER.

gale and rain. 011 Tbe _f. x * en i sive low barometric pressure which has been the cause of the heavy northerly gale for the past day or two culminated m very heavy showIZJ throa gJ lout yesterday and last night, and South Taranaki has received a thorough soaking. During the night the wind changed to the south, and this morning the weather showed an improvement, while the barometer had risen severa l points, and the prospects are that Ihe weather ought to improve as the high pressure system advances.

DAMAGE TO NEW PLYMOUTH BREAKWATER.

One of the most severe storms experienced in recent times broke over New Plymouth on Tuesday night and continued yesterday (the Herald reports). The wind from the north developed into a gale, and was aecohipamed by rain. The fall recorded at the New Plymouth meteorological station was not unusually heavy (.38in. up to 9 a.m. to-day), but was driven with great force by the gale, rattling down upon roofs and against windows in a way that made people glad to be cosily indoors. Yesterday morning the effect of the gale upon vegetable, and flower gardens was unpleasantly apparent.

, steamer Ngapuhi, which is running in place of the Rarawa *in the New Plymouth-Onehunga service,.was late in leaving New Plymouth last night, owing to delay in working cargo. Sailing at 10 p.m. she. had a strong wind! and rough sea to contend with. She reached Onehunga at 1.15 p.m., thus having taken about 2% hours longer on the voyage than is usual under normal conditions. It was uncertain yesterday whether or not the latest section added to the breakwater would be destroyed. Early yesterday morning it was discovered that the section was canting forward, the foundation beneath the concrete work evidently having been weakened. At 2 o’clock this afternoon the crack at the upper part had opened to the extent of a foot or eighteen inches, and the work was being pounded by the heaviest seas that had been experienced for a very long time. A section, it should be added, is 12ft in length, and consists of three layers of concrete, the lowest of blocks, the middle one of mass concrete, and the upper one of mass concrete, flanked on either side bv blocks. There is always the danger of a heavy sea undermining the section last completed, because it cannot be protected by rubble at the seaward end, as is the permanent end of a breakwater. Up till the present the Harbour Board lias been fortunate in not suffering any loss in this way, the worst that has happened hitherto being the scattering of some blocks in. an uncompleted section.