BAD WEATHER IN THE NORTH.

Otago Witness, Issue 2785, 31 July 1907, Page 34

BAD WEATHER IN THE NORTH.

AUCKLAND, July 22. At Te Aroha a gale raged on Saturday night and Sunday. Fences and sheds are down everywhere. A cottage in which George Hickey was sleeping was blown away and smashed to pieces. Hickey was badly bruised, but no bones were broken. Johnson and Gwillim's shed, containing six buggies, was destroyed. The river is high, and railway communication interrupted. At Paeroa -there was a washout, about £500 worth of damage being done. Tho rain in Auckland for the 24 hours ending 9.30 a.m. yesterday was 1.85 inches, and from then till 9.30 this morning an additional .94in was registered, making a total of 2.79 inches in 48 hours. The windage was only heavy for the 24 hours ending at 9 o'clock yesterday morning, when 864 miles were registered by the anemometer. The gale on Sunday caused extensive damage to portions of the new fero-con-orete railway wharf. The part affected most is the training wall— the slieathed piles which entend the whole length of the wharf for the purpose of turning the tide and making still water inside. About a dozen bays in the middle of the wall have been torn out almost completely, a few isolated piles being visible here and there with jagged ends of steel reinforcement sticking out of the top. A heavy top girder has also gone In these bays, with the exception of some small portions j hanging to tope of isolated piles, the steel bars forming the reinforcement are bent and stripped of concrete, across the intervening space. Passing further out towards tho end of the wharf the wall still stands, though daylight can be seen glimmering between piles in several places. Coming to the pkee where the work is now pro-

' gressing-*- the ravages of storm are onoe more apparent. ' At the north-eastern corner a clump of piles has been driven, and these have been forced in various directions. Other damage is reported. WESTPORT, July 22. There was a heavy gale on Saturday, .'and considerable damage was done throughout the district. The Trotting Club's grandstand was unroofed. A bush fire is raging at Seddonville. The Masonic Hall caught fire, but the flames were extinguished. ' . ; GREYMOUTH, July 22. Damage from the gale is reported throughout the town. Skeates's Hall was damaged to the extent of £600, and Victoria Park by £500: To-day there was a great demand for carpenters and bricklayers to repair the damage.