TELEGRAPH LINE DAMAGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21280, 6 September 1932, Page 10

TELEGRAPH LINE DAMAGE

BUSH FIRES A CAUSE POSITION IN CANTERBURY / July and August, the months in which there is most fear of snow damage to tho overhead telephone and telegraph wires in tho district, have passed, this year with much less than the usual disturbance to tho circuits, but bush firesi softening the wires and cracking the insulators'/ have lately been doing a fair amount of damage throughout tho West Coast section of the district. Scrub-burn-ing by landholders was at the bottom of the trouble. The present time is the beginning of the season of heavy gales, bringing a new anxiety- to the Post and Telegraph Department, tor not even the up-to-date lines which have replaced the old equipment in most parts of Canterbury, cau stand up to falling trees and branches. Because tho reconstructed circuits formed so large a part of the Canterbury network of overhead linos, tho department faced the winter with more confidence than would have been justifiable in pre vious ye;jrs, but the snow threat this year v=us much lighter than the average. Except for the early trouble at Fail-lie, when sections of l:ne were brought to tho ground, poles and all, there has been no real trouble. In some places on the West Coast the scrub tires burned the actual posts, but .snapping of wires softened by the heat of the flames, arid cracking of insulators, were the worst troubles. It is in South Canterbury particularly that falling trees cause breaks in the services. This form of damage is decreasing, however, mainly because farmers are realising tho value of topping their trees.