ROUTES NOW OPEN

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 58, Issue 89, 17 May 1929, Page 7

ROUTES NOW OPEN

MAIN ROAD TRAFFIC RESUMES waitangi and pakowhai river. NO SE-1IOUS STOCK LOSSES DISTRICT HAS FORTUNATE ESCAPE. GREAT RELIEF TO FARMERS After many hours of heavy floods which at times threatcned to rival those of 1597 for sevcrity, a welcome change occurred late yesterday, and last night tho peak of the tloods had passed. Thcsc iniproved conditions wero, continued to-day, and tlic walevs cverywlicrc re.ceded a good deal, and in soine places vanished nllogetlier. A great deal of debris has heen left lichind whcre Ihe waters cncroached upon the land, and the roads which were covered have mostly heen strippcd clean of tho metal surface. Graders have hcen at work, however, in many places, aiul conditions improved. Geveral smaller hridges in the eountry districts have heen cilher entirely washed away or coutorled so as to make trafiic over them unsafe, and manv farming cominunities have hcen cut off from the towus hy thcse dcvelopments of the fiood. Much relief was fclt this morning whcn Ihe promising fall in the fiood waters was continued, and an even more pleasing aspect is that there have been few reports of lost stoek. The most serious loss of this kind was sustained l>y Mr T. Burgess, of Papakura, the waters accounting for 30 of his ewes. This is exceedinglv fcrtunate, and it is not thought that the losses in any place have been at all serious. The conditions of the roads are still causing some anxiety, * though the Napier Taupo road is open. The Wairoa road, on the other hand, will probably not be open until Monday. Napier's isolation of "Wcdnesday night fortunately exists no longer, and cars were getting through to Hastings to-day, both liy Fernhill and via the Waitangi. Many of the country roads, however, are still inundated. and the waters are slow in getting away. WTith improved weather conditions, however, the rivers should soon fall to their normal heights. As a result of the floods it is anticipated that when the waters rece.de a deposit of silt will be left on tlie lands that have been inundated and several roads will have to be reformed.