THE MAP CHANGED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 102, 3 May 1938, Page 9

THE MAP CHANGED

EAST COAST FLOODS TE HOE LAKE DISAPPEARS [ Per Pres* Association. ] NAPIER, April 2. Surveys of the area selected by the floods disclose one phenomenon after another. Now revealed is the disappearance of Te Hoe Lake, which was formed by the earthquake in 1931. The lake was created at the junction of the Te Hoe and Mohaka rivers, about 25 miles inland from Tutira, by the damaging of the Toe Hoe River, when the sides of the gorge fell in as a result of the earthquake. The dam thus formed was an enormous mound and held in check many millions of gallons of water, which backed up behind the dam itself for some two miles. At that time the slow rise of the waters gradually engulfed a fajm property, a. small plantation, and woolshed. A house which was in danger was floated to a higher level and saved. The bursting of the dam last week released millions ef gallons of water, an occurrence which is considered to explain the rapid and otherwise unaccountable rise of the Mohaka River and the destruction of

the Mohaka Bridge just oelcLv the railway viaduct. The disappearance of the lake has revealed again a large area of the Ngatapa flats, which weie submerged when the lake was formed seven years ago