FALL OF CLIFF

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21934, 18 October 1934, Page 10

FALL OF CLIFF

FISHING PARTY'S ESCAPE ISOLATED ON ROCK TOSS Of EARTH DESCENT) LANDSLIDE W TABANAKI NEEVE-WEACKDfG OEDEAL [BY TELEGRAPH OWN" COraiESPOSTD'EXTj STE'W PLYMOUTH, Wednesday Clinging to a crumbling mass or rock, for whatever protection it might afford, three Hawera. residents had a nerve-wracking experience on the beach below the Fairfield golf links 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 alone the seafront and all three were horrified to see the earth over a 100 ft. face tremble and move bodily toward them. Slowly at first, ami then with Catherine; speed, the cliffside descended in a gigantic slab which cast forth fragments of rock from beneath. A stream of rubble cracks appeared in the slab and slowly the mass disintegrated and heaved over the narrow stretch or beach. Ihen, with a huge splash, it entered the sea. Party " Tlioranglily Tarrifled " It kept on a direct path toward the. rock vantage point, and the partv, who, by this 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 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. When the locality waa visited yesterday a reporter familiar with the contour of the beach waa amazed at the change in its appearance. I&ring the past two weeks heavy falls of earth had occurred, sufficient to cover the beach and extend into the sea over an area of approximately three acres. The members of the fishing party were actually using some of the enormous masses of soft rack from which to cast their lines, these masses being over 300 ft. from the foot of the cliff, which, towers upward for a distance of over 2aoft. to farm lands above. It is apparent from the gap left in the coastline that a large area of land haa disappeared.

Crav33Hes af Grsat Cepth. Approaching the edze af the cliff,, the reporter was halted by the siiiht at crevasses 10 to Isft„ from the brink: and descending: through- strata, to a. great depth, and is "wan evident that another section of the cliff was on the "creep." From another angle could be seen a tali pillar of rock 30 to 40ft. high at a, point where the earth all around had fallen away. On top of the pillar was a fantastic can of green turf and in the centre a small tree. Cracks were in evidence along the top of the- cMfe to within. 100 yards of the recently-CQtmpletect Hawera borough sewer.