FISHING PARTY’S ORDEAL

Manawatu Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 4407, 20 October 1934, Page 1

FISHING PARTY’S ORDEAL

CLIFF FALLS ABOUT THEM.

Clinging to a crumbling mass of rock, for whatever protection it might afford, three Hawera residents had a nerve-wracking experience on the beach below the Fairfield golf links on Wednesday as they watched 250 ft. high cliffs tremble and, with a terrifying roar, precipitate hundreds of tons of earth and debris about them.

The party, which consisted of a married couple and a young man, had been fishing from a rock vantage point in the sea, when, suddenly, an ominous rending noise echoed along the sea-front and all thi’ee were horrified to see the earth over a 100 ft. face tremble and move bodily toward them. Slowly at first, and then with gathering speed, the cliffside descended in a gigantic slab which cast forth fragments of rock from beneath. A stream of rubble cracks appears in the slab and slowly the mass disintegrated and heaved over the narrow stretch of beach. Then, with a huge splash, it entered the sea.

It kept on a direct path toward the rock vantage point, and the party, who, by his time, were thoroughly terrified. Higher and higher mounted the conglomeration until it spilled over the rock and around them, each member of the party clinging 1 desperately to a crumbling mass for protection, until gradually the flow of earth and rock subsided and the three frightened people made haste through a sea of mud, and over large boulders and pieces of clay to the beach, badly shaken by their experience.