OVER FLOODED ROADS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18678, 7 April 1924, Page 10

OVER FLOODED ROADS.

MINISTER IN THE NORTH. I INCIDENTS BY THE WAY. WOMAN CAUGHT IN STREAM. STENOGRAPHER'S 'ADVENTURE. Several incidents connected with the tour of the flooded regions by the Hon. J. G. Coates,. Minister for Public Works and Railways, serve to indicate how rapid was the threatening rise of the flood waters on Thursday. Mr. Coates left Dargaville on Thursday morning to inspect the line between Kir;kopuni to Pukehnia. It was pouring with rain, and at the Omana tunnel the Minister and <his party proceeded lon, horseback in teeming rain to Tauraroa, the journey over flooded creeks and heavy roads occupying from 3j to 4 hours. Near the Pekowahine Bridge, between Omana and Waiotira, which was actually moving with the action of the flood waters as the party crossed, the travellers encountered a woman with a two-months-old baby in her arms and a child ■of about two years who were making their way to the public works camp ?n the vicinity. The unfortunate woman- had been overtaken by the storm and was in an exhausted, wet and miserable condition. Members of Mr. Coates' party are convinced that she would never have reached the camp had she endeavoured to struggle on much further through the flooded country. As it was assistance was rendered by a number of public works employees, who were summoned, and she and the children were made comfortable in tjieir camp with a warm fire and food. . The Ministerial party arrived at Whangarei wet to the skin, and minus their personal effects which failed to arrive by car owing to the impassable state of the roads. Meanwhile., an unpleasant experience befel the Minister's private stenographer, Mrs. N. T. Churches, who set out from Dargaville by* car at 10 a.m., with the object of joinipg the Minister at Whanparei.. The car . was proceeding in pouring rain along tho Houto Road when the engine stopped as the car was fording a water-logged stretch of the country. Efforts to get the engine going failed, water having entered the carburetter. Mrs. Churches waded to dry land while a team of horses was procured to drag the car out of the impasse. In the meanwhile the wafers rose rapidly, until they lapped over the floor. It was then discovered that the travellers were marooned, as the flood had covered the road behind them and it was impossible to get the car back. .The only way out was to traverse the miniature lake on horseback, and upon this being satisfactorily accomplished, Mrs. Churches proceeded back to a township she had left some hours previously, ana was made as comfortable as possible at the store. She was later conveyed back to Dargaville by car, arriving at 7 p.m. Four other cars were marooned at the same spot in the 'afternoon-

EXTENT DP DAMAGE.

MR. COATED ESTIMATE. £6000 TO REPAIR RAIT/WAY. GOVERNMENT 'SUBSIDIES. ;.r- ; ~V; ■-*■* ... ' *■ ;•'* "Considering the high state of the floods, the country has come off very lightly," stated the Hon. J. G.. Coates, Minister for Public Works, on his return from the Northern districts on Saturday. " A continuance of heavy rain over the week-end might put a different complexion on conditions, he added, but the noticeable thing about Thursday's flood was that the damage came quickly, and was comparatively light i- in . character. Mr. Coates estimated the damage to the Whangarei-Huarau section of the North Auckland railway at approximately £6000, The floods, however, had retarded a' great deal of the construction works on the Dargaville branch line. It had been "hoped to run public works trains over the Waiotira-Kirikopuni section of the line in-twelve months, but as a result of the damage to this portion the completion of the section would be delayed at least a month. -Damage, stated the Minister, was most extensive in the Otamatea, Hobson, and Whangarei counties, though, news had been officially received from the Rodney county, which "appeared to be more or less' isolated. Further north, the floods had been less serious in their consequences, and in the Mangonui, Whangaroa, and Hokianga counties the damage was not at all extensive. The Public Works Department would,, of course, be responsible for a £ for £. subsidy to the local bodies in respect of all flood damage. A tribute to the officers and ..men of the Public Works and Railways Departments was made by Mr. Coates in his speech at the opening of the Waimauku Post- Office on Saturday afternoon. He had been greatly impressed, he said, with the organisation which had been set in motion to effect repairs to the means of communication, and the efforts made to keep the roads and railways open. Officers of the two departments and the local bodies, he said, quickly realised that .the Tains were exceptional, and were on the scene of action even before the floods, had reached their -greatest height. Everyone appeared to have been on the qui vive, and everything possible was accomplished. Times of emergency tested men and women as no other occasions would, and it was a pleasure, to find,_ whenever he was obliged to make inquiries as to what action was being taken, that prompt decisions had. been arrived at, and promptly carried out. /

POSITION AT SILVER!)ALE.

• damage TO bridge. LAUNCH LANDING GOES. While Silverdale was on the southern edge of the area of flood damage, it nevertheless suffered seriously. At the township the Wade River rose very —sometimes to the extent of six feet in an hour. It was observed that at dead low-water it was flowing more than six feet above its normal high-water level. . The main bridge across the Great North Road in the township, upon which the Waitemata County Council recently spent £2000 in putting down heavy masonry abutments, has been seriously damaged. While it is still perfectly passable, the wings of stonework have been undermined by the river, and if further heavy rain occurs soon it must incur further damage. The most serious damage in the district, however, has been suffered by McKeown's culvert on the Silverdale-Dairy Flat road, about a mile from the township. Here an embankment was being made across a very deep gully, with a culvert underneath it. The filling material was about 30ft. in depth, and the torrents which rushed down the valley have torn a great chasm through the embankment for its full depth. Tile reinforced conCrete work has been smashed hopelessly crumpled up like' so much pie-crust. , At the township the launch landing was swept out to sea, but the main landing used by the Northern Steamship Company's vessels withstood the strain of the swollen stream. About a dozen launches and _ other boats owned by settlers were carried out to sea, or stranded further down the river,, '