GALE IN WELLINGTON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18888, 22 December 1924, Page 12

GALE IN WELLINGTON.

SUP ON THE HUTT ROAD.

FALL OF ROCK AND CLAY.

DAMAGE IN THE SUBURBS,,

HOUSE CARRIED DOWN HILL. [Bs' TELEGRAPH. —PREBS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON, Sunday.

The most serious effect of the Btoi-m as far as Wellington City was concerned was reserved until the dying hours of the gale and wind. Early ou Saturday morning, apparently about 4 o'clock, one of the worst falls recorded came down on the Hutt Road between Kaiwarra and Ngahauranga, completely smothering tie roadway over its full width. Thousands of tons of thoroughly sodden rock and elav filled the road. '** The inspecting engineer, Mr. K. E. Luke, was informed of the slip, and was on the spot Hhortly .jjfterwards, but it was plain that not much onld be done by mere shovel work. However, the corporation's roadmen and quarry workers were mustered, and started to make a narrow 4Mfc a S 6 > which was still open on the extreme edge of the cycle track, safe for traffic. A great mass of rock which threatened to fall at any moment had to be cleared away to render the road safe.

A rush order was at once sent to the engineer in charge of the Eongotai mixing plant to get the steam navvy on the road without delay, but though the navvy can dig fast enough, it is not a road runner by any means, and it cannot very well arrive at the slip before Monday morning. A very big job awaits it there. Though the passageway may be widened to a reasonable driving width on Monday, the removal of the whole slip will occupy days. Eastbourne, with its steep hillsides and undeveloped country roads, suffered considerably from the storm, and. the same applies to Day's Bay and other bays. At Muritai, the southern extremity of Eastbourne, a number of houses were flooded. On the main road a numbqr of homes suffered from invasion by the flood waters, where anything from three inches to, in one case, two feet of water was experianced. The mtst serious damage occurred in Nikau Street, where Mr. W. Fryer's house, occupied by Mrs. Lawton and her two children, was carried dowa the hill by a big slip. Shortly after ni.ae o'clock yesterday the hillside at the btck of the house began to move with a sullen roar, and Mrs. Lawton and her children fled to an adjacent house, which offered them sanctuary. Then the trouble commenced. The slip started to move fast, and the house was soon the centre of the trouble.

Pushed and jolted over the rough hill-, side, shedding a brick chimney on its way, amid the roar of sliding land and the clatter of broken crockery as goods and chattels in the bouse were thrown from one side to the other, the cottage finally turned right round and stopped almost at the foot of the hill. Though the house stopped, a rubble slide continued to run down to the creek below,,

Wellington ipent its week-end putting things in order. Quite a number of houses appear to have suffered severely. One dwelling in Maida Vale Road, overlooking Evan's Bay, was seriously undermined, and was left hanging dangerously upon a few shaky piles. More trouble followed further down the hill, the weight of the sliding earth and debris carrying away a retaining wall, which crashed down upon a. standing motor-lorry, burying and mining it. Heavy grueling work during the long hours opened the Paekakariki Hill to traffic again on Saturday morning, half a dozen service cars from the North getting through in a bunch shortly .'before mid-' day. In the afternoon the road was exceedingly busy with traffic, which had accumulated from and to Wellington during the last three or four days.