THE WEATHER

Southland Times, Issue 16844, 21 September 1911, Page 5

THE WEATHER

THE STORM IN THE WORTH. HAVOC AT LiVALL HAY. (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON. September 20. It i.s still blowing hard and raining tonight, and the weather is very cold. Tim force of the gale is felt very keenly at Lyall Lay, where the breakers have rushed In with tremendous force. On Tuesday ’night the water reached the termination of the tram line and undermined the foundations of many buildings on the beacii. A men's dressing shed, thirty feet long, was almost entirely swept away, and (lie almost computed club house t-lOft long) of the Lyall Hay Surf t’luh. hart disappeared. A, raised .stand on the beach hart gone ami left no trace. The shed of the Wellington Chair Company hart fared badly, but still stood. The beach was strewn to-day with debris and wreckage of every description. The breakers rushed shoreward.? at express speed, their boiling crests rising ten above the sand. Almost everything moveable had disappeared, a clean sweep having been made of the beach. The few buildings remaining seem doomed. The sides of the sandhills are covered with life-buoys, seats with logs and backs broken, notices to bathers, lifesaving reels, chaire, boxes which had been hastily moved out of reach of the sea, the concrete foundations of a dressing shed broken into pieces ten feet long and about half a ten in weight.

ROUGH TIMES FOR SHIPPING. CHRISTCHURCH, Sept. 20. A change for the better took place in the weather to-day, though conditions are still far from pleasant. The sun made a/, gallant effort to pierce the dark clou'ds during the morning ; but the periods of sunshine were very brief indeed, alternating w-lth some heavy downpours. There was a rather longer fine spell after midday; but during late afternoon there were still spasmodic sou’-west storms. The w-eather at Lyttelton this morning showed some signs of clearing. Along the coast, however, an exceptionally heavy gale was blowing. The Hauroto, which left Port Chalmers at 5.10 p.m., had a very rough and dirty passage of 17 hours, W-lth a hard southerly gale and heavy seas up the coast to Lyttelton. The force of the gale is shown by the fact that the Mokoia, which left Wellington at 8.20 p.m. last night, had steamed only eight miles In three hours. She had a wild night crossing Cook Strait, steaming against the hard southerly gale and high head seas, and at times w-as making only one or two miles an hour. The Mokoia was reported as having passed Kaikoura Peninsula at 11.40 a.m. to-dav, so that she had taken 15% hours to cover the 88 miles stretch from Wellington to that headland, an average of less than six miles an hour.

The Mokoia arrived at Lyttelton at 8 p.m., after a 24 hours’ trip from Wellington. WELLINGTON, Sept. 20.

The steamer Kapitl, which left Lyttelton at noon yesterday, arrived here at 8.30 this morning, after a rough passage. As she was coming Into the heads an Immense sen came over the poop, sweeping the life-boat, and everything movable on the docks, overboard, and injuring two of the crew (P. Brlen, an able seaman, and E. Milson, a lamp trimmer), who were thrown against the winch. The vessel broached to, but was quickly got on her course again. The Tarawera made a very long trip from Napier. She left there for Wellington at 5 p.m. on Monday, and reached here shortly before nine this morning, having been plugging against a heavy southerly gale the greater part of the time. The forecastle w-as flooded, and some of the deck cargo was damaged. WANGANUI, Sept. 20.

The steamer Regulus had a rough time crossing the bar inwards this morning. She was broadside on, but the captain managed to keep her In the channel, and she was blown sideways into the river.