A HEAVY GALE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10955, 18 July 1921, Page 5

A HEAVY GALE

DAMAGE TO PROPERTY UNION CO-U*PAXY'S STEAMER BREAKS AWAY. EXCITEMENT IN HARBOUR. On« of the severest north-westerly gales experienced in Wellington f®r many months raged throughout Saturday, increasing at nightfall almost to a hurricane. Heavy showers of rain fell at lengthy intervals. Scores of windows were blown in, trees uprooted, and large hoardings and fences were blown down. A number of chinine yu also collapsed, including a chimney of the house of Mr Maurice O'Connor on the Terrace. The bricks of the latter crashed through the roof of the building, causing considerable damage. A number of city and suburban shop premieen bore the appearance yesterday of having been under siege, plateglass windows being shattered, and hoards had been nailed Up as a substitute. Portion of the large hoarding near the morgue, at the corner of Clyde quay and Wakefield street, was levelled on to the footpath. Early on Saturday evening during tho height of the gale two startling detonations echoed over tho city, but prior to that the vigorous whistling of a steamer in the harbour had attracted the attention of those near the waterfront. It transpired that the Union Steam Ship Company’s cargo steamer Poherua, which was laid up in the stream, broke the chain cable that held her to tho moorin" buoy. When the sound of the Poherua’s whistle was heard about 6.30 p.m. numbers of tho harbourmaster’s staff went to investigate. Tho captain of tho ferry steamer Duchess was asked to see what it as amiss in the anchorage. The Duchess was about to sail for Eastbourne so she made a detour around the Poherua and saw that her mooring cable had parted, but sho was riding out tho gale still held securely to the buoy "f’V a 3) imh i tec! ivir.- ‘'; rcveiitor.' On arrival at Eastbourne the master of the Duchess telephoned the information to tho tolls office at Queen’swharf. Within an hour of the sounding of the alarm the harbour tug Karaka went out to make an examination of the Poherua. The two explosions which attracted so much attention were detonators fired from . the Government training ship Amokura which was moored in the stream not far from the Poherua. The object of firing the detonators was to bring assistance to the Poherua. hater on the Union Company’s tug Terawhiti and the tug Natone went out and, after some difficulty, owing to tho violence of the gale, they brought the Poherua alongside the King’s wharf a few minutes Before midnight on Saturday. b'ome of the smaller steamers were detained at Wellington' on Saturday, hut up casualties occurred. The gale ■lon ly decreased from 1 o’clock yesterday morning and by 10 o’clock yesterday morning had completely abated. Tho Hutt river was in high flood yesterday. The depth gauge at the Hutt bridge was submerged, as were the boom groynes and the water was rushing under the’ bridge at a rapid rate.