Shortland Street Emulates Rotorua

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 675, 29 May 1929, Page 13

Shortland Street Emulates Rotorua

A CITY GEYSER WORKMAN PUNCTURES MAIN Thoughtlessly, in a devil-may-care way, a workman swung his pick over his shoulder and brought it down. Swoosh! A great column of water shot up, knocking him over backwards and putting thoughts of Rotorua and geysers into his head. He had tapped a water-mai n. This occurred in Shortland Street at about ten minutes to two this afternoon by the lower corner of the new South British Insurance Company. A workman was engaged in digging an excavation to carry power lines into the building, when suddenly his pick dug into the bottom of the hole he was making in the pavement and penetrated a main. A stream of water shot up in geyser shape as high as the second storey of the new building. It burst at the top into clouds of spray, coloured into a perfect rainbow and broke up and drifted down the wind almost into Queen Street. The upper windows of a chemist’s shop to leeward of the spray received their full share, and a good deal found its way into the open door of the new building, damaging some of the woodwork inside. The geyser continued for some time and attracted a considerable crowd of lunch-hour passers-by.