GREAT WORK

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

GREAT WORK

RAILWAY DEPARTMENT'S FINE 0RGANX5ATI0N. Last Night's Expres's Aimost To Time. With coiirlitions much improved at tlio Waitangi and tlio waters which last night wero ni.slii.ng a fool benoath tho Whakatu bridgo having dropped by 18 inelies by nine o'clock this liioruing, the good work dono by the itailway Department yesterday was enableil to bo carried on again to-day, tlie south-bound express train pulling out 011 schedule and making good time to Hastings. To have got the train through only a few minutes late last night rcfiected the liighest evedit on tlie officials concerned, as did the running aimost to schedule of tlie Napier-IIastiiigs train service yesterday. Passengers who arrived by tlie express train in Napier last night expressed themselves as very relieved at getting through in safety and full of admiration for the Bnilway Department in maintaining the service under sucli conditions. Ouo passenger 011 last night's train gave a pressman his impressions _ of the trip between Hastings and Napier, which he described as most exeiting. iHis oue regret was that the light was failing at the time, olherwis© he would probably have been able to seo more than lie actually did. The fiood area began at Tomoana, and looking in either direetion all that was to bc seen was semi-submergecl j fences, trees and an oceasional liay1 staok stirking out of tlie water. The I poplar avenue at Pakowhai was seen ' in a novel light, seeiningly fringing a j hroad canal. : _ At times the train was bareJv mov- | ing and everv care was lieing taken hy . the engine-drlver and liis fironian, who Jvore hoth keejiing a sharp look-out 011 as much a.s was visiblo of tlie line alfoad. Tlie small hridge at tlie Karamu crossing rejiresented a considerable J dnnger point, there having heen fears expressed tliat tlie piling Would sub-f-ido, and all the passengers breathed a sigli of relief wlien this was safcly nogotiated. » j There still remaincd tlie Whakatu raihvay hridge, whcre the Ngaruroro was at its angriost, with the swiftly j rnsliing waters leaping and tuinhling ; liarelv n foofc heneath tlic stringers of ' tlie hridge. Quanlities of driflwood i wero jammed agaiint tlic piles, fonni ing a serious and offective obstacle to | the fiood waters. ! At 0110 point boncatli the bridgo a 1 Uockage had causerl tlie fonnation of 1 a weir a good tliree feet liigh — a fact ! wliich slinws how great a strain the i hridge might have had to hear had Ihe 1 j firod continued; and which shows also how much it interferes with the flow of Ihe river. From tlie bridge onwards the line itself was rlenr, hut from tlie edge of the railwav embankment- aud stretching to tlie western lioriznn tlie water !nv from two to six fret deep. On the other side of the embankment there 'was not. apart from isolated paddocks I hore and there, any very extensive J fiooding. j Passengers on this morning's mai! j southward still had a cHnre of seeing serious fiooding, but {Tie main thrill had passed.