BAD TIME AT NEW PLYMOUTH.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LVII, Issue LVII, 1 April 1910, Page 5

BAD TIME AT NEW PLYMOUTH.

FURTHER DAMAGE REPORTED.

Further reports from New Plymouth show that yesterday's record did not cover the whole of the damage done. The place (according to the News) presents a spectacle of shattered fences, storm-smashed trees, broken chimneys, and dismantled outbuildings. Pines a loot in diameter came down in the Recreation Grounds, and the devastating influence wrecked numerous pungas. The Harbor Board's dredge, the "Pommy King," broke adrift and sank near the wharf. The task of refloating the vessel will be no easy one, for the weight will probably be too great fox the Board's cranes. The repairs bill, will be heavy. News from the country districts shows that the gale , was not confined to New Plymouth. Its worst seems to have been felt between New Plymouth and Oakura, where paddocks are strewn with fencing and roofing iron, shelter plantations and hedges badly broken and torn, maize and turnip crops apparently ruined. A nice field of maize near Omata, standing five or six feet high last week, was yesterday as flat as the proverbial pancake. Turnips, which were none too healthy-looking on account of the blight, were stripped of their tops,, and this will doubtless prove a serious matter. Many of the farmhouses suffered more or less damage, from broken windows to partiallystripped roofs, Mr Were's new, house at Omata sustaining serious damage. A big tree fell across the end of Mr Lister's bulk store at Omata, crushing the roof in. A report from Okato states that Mr W. Gray's house was stripped of its roof. Drivers of coaches and waggons on the South road have had* a boisterous time. The motor mail coach was overturned near Tapuae, Mr Jury's norsecoach stayed the night at Okato, and one of the motor waggons returned to New Plymouth after traversing only a few miles. Several stories are told of gigs blown off the road and up against the fences. Broken shafts testify to the force of the impact. Amongst the humorous tales is that of a man who, after having his horse and gig blown into what seemed to him a position from which he could not extricate the turnout single-handed, set out to the nearest hotel for assistance. This was immediately forthcoming. But he had not got beyond the precincts of the premises when he saw the horse drawing up at the house, as was his usual custom. Apparently another gust had relieved the vehicle of the weight which, had prevented him releasing the trap himself.