TRAM DERAILMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24761, 8 December 1943, Page 2

TRAM DERAILMENT

MANY SERVICES AFFECTED LONG DELAY TO TRAFFIC Many workers travelling to the city between seven and eight o'clock yesterday morning were delayed by a tram derailment at the top of Khyber Pass, and consequently were late by as much as an hour in arriving at their offices and factories. All south-western routes were affected. The mishap occurred at 7.10, when a tram which had travelled up Khyber Pass started to turn up Symonds Street. The front bogey safely negotiated the points, but the rear wheels began to turn down Symonds Street and left the rails. The intersection remained blocked until 7.50 and the dislocation of time-tables was not corrected for another hour. _ t The routes which were disofganised included Mount Eden and Three Kings, Mount Roskill, Owairaka, Mount Albert and Ayondale. Many workers set out to walk either to their places of business or to the top of Queen Street where they could catch trams from the western suburbs, but others elected to stay until the tram was placed back on the rails. Intending passengers gathered in large groups at all stops along the routes, and when the cars began to run again they carried capacity loads on the first few trips. The delay to services was the second in the vicinity within a week. Last Wednesday an electrical fault in a tram bound for the city at 7.45 a.m. delayed cars on the same routes for a considerable period. MISHAP IN QUEEN STREET A BRIEF INTERRUPTION Through the rear bogey of a Pon-sonby-bound tram failing to take the turn from Customs Street into Queen Street and colliding with a Remuera tram, there was a brief interruption of the service between 4.20 and 4.30 p.m. yesterday. Before the line was cleared inward cars had become banked up above Wyndham Street, and there was !a similar congestion of outward-bound trams, all fully loaded. A woman passenger in the derailed vehicle had an arm cut when she was thrown against a window. TOBACCO FOR FORCES ABOUT 15CWT. WEEKLY POSTAL SERVICE SCHEME (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday Cigarettes, pipe and cigarette tobaccos aggregating approximately threequarters of a ton in weight weekly have been required recently to fill orders placed under the National Patriotic Fund Board postal tobacco service on behalf of members of the New Zealand forces serving overseas. In January the service will have been operating for two years. Already in the current year some 14,500 more'parcels have been sent than in the first year. Orders received since the service was inaugurated total 84,500. HEAVY HAY CROPS POVERTY BAY FARMS (0.c.) (tISBORNE, Tuesday Dairy production is being maintained in Poverty Bay in spite of a reduction in the numbers of cows and the dispersal of many herds. Only the best | cows have been retained in production, \ and the great growth in pastures will ! give many excellent herd averages. The pasture growth is the best for many years and the hav crops being harvested now are particularly heavy. The lack of labour is forcing farmers to appeal to the Gisborne Primary Production Council for Territorial labour, although until the last few days they were disinterested in the scheme. The first mobilisation of Territorials takes place next week and will be a small one. It is expected that all the labour available will be absorbed in hay harvesting. SEARCH FOR OIL INGENIOUS APPARATUS (0.C.) t NEW PLYMOUTH, Tuesday An ingenious device, known as an electrical log, is being used in Taranaki by the New Zealand Petroleum Company, Limited, for recording information previously only obtained by a laborious process. It has speeded' up exploratory oil boring beyond-all recognition. With its aid yesterday a comElete record was made of a bore at 'ruti down to the depth already attained. The apparatus finds out for the geologist what kind of formations there are over the whole depth, how porous the formations are, with regard to their potentialities as oil reservoirs, and what kind of fluid is present in the formations. In doing this, it supplies much of the information that has proved elusive, or costly-to obtain because of the endless delay caused by the taking of cores from the bottom of a bore.