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The Gisborne Photo News

 
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No 47 : May 29, 1958

24

The End of the Drought

One Day It Was This...

The long, hot summer was beginning to be a worry. People were running out of water. Farmers were selling off stock to conserve feed. Milk supplies were dwindling. In Gladstone Road, a council man hosed plants in the Clock tower plot to keep them alive.

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But Next Day It Was This.
The plants don't need watering now. The tanks are overflowing. The long drought has broken in a weekend which has brought six inches of rain. Where clouds of dust annoyed residents in Atkinson St., the road quickly becomes a muddy river.

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On the Sunday afternoon of the downpour (May 11), the wet spell ended in torrential rain from the east, with driving gusts which at times exceeded 50 m.p.h.

"Photo News" promptly headed for Hospital Hill where the camera, sheltered under a cape, shot these scenes through sheets of water.

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Looking across the bitumin road, now converted into a muddy torrent, to disturbed slopes beneath the nurses' home, laced with rivulets.

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Another view of Hospital Hill river, shingle and all. This river, with its silt and stones, continued down into Hospital Road and Perry Street.

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The morning after. Council workmen clearing street and drains of accumulated debris at the Hospital Road-Perry St.corner.

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