BIG TIDE AT SUMNER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16666, 26 September 1914, Page 10

BIG TIDE AT SUMNER.

TRAM RUNS OFF MUDDY RAILS. Exceptionally high tides are generally to be expected in New Zealand at this time of the year, and the consequences do not usually cause much inconvenience, even at seaside towns. A combination of an easterly swell, followed by a stiff nor’-wester, however, brought a very large volume of extra water into the Avon-Heathcote estuary on Thursday night, and in places the roadway between the Ferry Bridge and Sumner was inundated. Low-lying land in the vicinity of Eedcliffs and of the Heathcote tramway bridge was submerged for a time, and the water washed over the Sumner tramway track at a spot opposite Andrews’s quarry, and also under the cliffs near the Shag Rock. At the latter spot the rails were covered with mud when the tide receded, and tho tram running out from tho city to take up the running at Sumner at 8.41 a.m. left the rails at this point. A breakdown gang was immediately sent out, but it was' not till midday that the rails were cleared and traffic resumed. In the town of Sumner itself very little damage was done. The tide at its. flood reached the very top of the beach, but beyond a little water on Head Street, and a small quantity of water that found its way into the Beach Sea House, there was very little to show that tho tide had been exceptionally high. The tramway track was not undermined in any way, and at noon yesterday was reported quite safe.