TELEGRAPHIC TROUBLES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14578, 8 April 1918, Page 6

TELEGRAPHIC TROUBLES.

FIFTY-THREE BREAKS WITHIN HALF A MILE. The telegraph wires m the King Country fire acme were not damaged because the poles were burnt, as right through the bush country iron poles are used as a first precaution against damage by fire- The damage, which was fairly extensive, was brought about by trees and branches of trees crashing down on the wires- and breaking or earthing" them. Curiously enough, the greatest telegraphic damage done during the recent storm period was not m the fire zone at all, but m Taranaki. At Mokoia, near Hawera, there were fifty-three breaks m the wire within a length of half-a-mile, which Mr. J. Orchison (Chief Telegraph Engineer) says is about a record for New Zealand. The reason of the breaks, without exception, was not the gale itself, but the number of pmes (pinus insifjnus' m most cases) ctowing near the line, which were blown down bodily or had great limbs broken off, which did the same damage to the wires. "These pines give *us more trouble with our wires than anything else I know of," said Mr. Orchiston. "We are always repairing damage to our lines of communication through these trees, and it comes to this, that we m, say, a quarter of a mile of the i"*g. sa y - j a quarter of a mile of the telegraph line. Here jjou have instances of. the press and the business of the country being held up because a pine, or a branch of one, snaps a wire. It became so bad* m Otago once that the Department helped farmers to remove the trees near the line, pointing out to them that it wag m their interest to keep the lines of communication intact. These pines grow up so quickly that they lose their strength, and the result is that their great limbs snap like carrots, under the pressure of a gale. It should be made prohibitory for anyone to plant pines near telegraph lines !"