DELAY TO EXPRESS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 231, 28 August 1935, Page 8

DELAY TO EXPRESS

THE KING COUNTRY SLIP. Running approximately eight and ahalf hours late, the south-bound Auckland express, which was _due in Palmerston North at 6.47 yesterday morning, in to the local station shortly after 3 p.m., and in older to further expedite its arrival at Wellington, a non-stop run was made between this centre and the Capital City. All passengers lor the intervening stations were required to alight here and proceed by Field’s express at 4 p.m. In conversation with three passengers who had made the long trip from Auckland, the slip at Ongarue was described as not being of very great dimensions, being some 20 ieet wide by about 5 feet in depth. However, the sand and rubble was still coming down and two of the workmen engaged in the removal of the original slip were caught on one occasion, one meeting with injuries which were deemed sufficiently serious for his admission to hospital One of the passengers remarked that some got out of the train and ploughed their way down the track and over the slip only to be recalled to the train. However, later orders necessitated their undertaking, the trip again, for the north-bound Limited express and the New Plymouth trains had been sent on from laumarunui. “We then transhipped on the other side of the slip, and heie we are.” ... ~ “It was a tedious wait while the mails and contents of the vans were transferred, but we managed to pass awav the night quite alright, remarked another passenger.

HILLSIDE FALLS

MAN BURIED TO NECK

Per Press Association. TAUMARUNCI, Aug.. 27. Nine men who were working a clearing the line, and who had just cleared several minor slips, were about to signal the line clear for the Limited express from Auckland, when the hillside fell suddenly like an avalanche. Most of the men saw the slip coming and escaped. One man was thiowii against a fence, and two gangers, Messrs J. Casuey, of Te Koura, and W. J. Williams, of Ongarue, were swept down a bank. Mr Casuey was buried to the neck, and Mr Williams was partly buried. They were quickly extricated bv their mates, and Mr Casuey was sent to hospital suffering from bruises and shock. Mr Williams was not injured. The slip occurred through a seepage of water through a pumice bank. Seven hundred passengers from the expresses were transferred in the night and a bonfire was lighted near tlie slip. The Ongarue disaster of some years ago happened one mile further north, on the other side of tlie river.