BACK TO NORMAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 168, 18 July 1945, Page 3

BACK TO NORMAL

RAIL AND TRAM SERVICES AT CHRISTCHURCH (P.A.) Christchurch, July 17. Railway and tramway services in Christchurch were back to normal today after Saturday’s big snowfall, and repair gangs are making good progress in repairing damaged telephone and power connections. It may be a week or more before the services are restored in the city, as many of the men who could be employed in the town are at work on broken toil lines in the country Communications with country districts are still restricted Leeston and other nearby towns'could not be communicated with by telephone this morning, but a normal telegraph service north and south of the city has been resumed. The Malvern Power Board’s system, which suffered thousands of pounds worth of damage in a snowstorm two years ago, is reported to be even more extensively damaged this time. The Spring-Ellesmere and North Canterbury reticulations are also badly shattered, and a week or more of hard work lies ahead before order can be restored. All railway services in the province were back to normal to-day. The main problem now with the railways is telephone and signals communications, heavy damage having been done to wires on the south and Midland lines, i Trams and buses ran at ful] timetables in the city. Public Works power lines from the generating stations at Highbank, Waitaki and Lake Coleridge are all in order now except for a break in an alternative cable from Lake Coleridge which has broken somewhere between Lake Coleridge and Hororatn. Gangs were out to-day trying to locate this fault. I There was a good thaw yesterday, but. a hard frost last night, and there are icy conditions in shaded streets and footpaths to-day

ASHBURTON FATALITY (P.A.) Ashburton, July 17. Ashburton at 1 30 n.m. to-day recovered- telegraphic communication with the outside world via Dunedin after isolation since Friday night as a result of a fall of 16 inches of snow in the town. The district suffers all disabilities reported from Christchurch with the loss of stock no: yet known owing to lack of telephonic communication. A regrettable feature was a facility at Willowby on Sunday, when a Power Board linesman, Joseph James Somerville Crawford, aged 46. was killed while repairing lines. He leaves a widow and three children, the eldest seven years of age.