Floods At Mercer.

Along the lower reaches of the Waikato River the immediate banks are too low to keep high flood waters within them, with the result that on occasions large areas of the surrounding country become inundated. Mercer often suffers in this respect and sometimes for considerable periods.

On the 6th August last the Waikato River began to swell and on that day at Mercer the water rose 8 inches, on the 7th another 11 inches, on the 8th a further 9 inches and the rising continued until the 13th, on which day the highest point of the flood was reached. At the height five sets of rails in the Mercer shunting yard were under water, and the Auckland-Hamilton road was submerged for three-quarters of a mile to the extent of 23 inches at the deepest part. The river then subsided gradually. It was not until the 20th August that the road and shunting yard became entirely free from the flood waters.

During the period of the submersion of the road, horses were used to assist motor traffic over the affected portions. Through traffic by rail was not interrupted.

The only slave left on earth is man minus his machine…… The function of the machine is to liberate man from brute burdens and release his energies to the building of his intellectual and spiritual powers for conquests in the fields of thought and higher action. The machine is the symbol of man's mastery of his environment.—Henry Ford.

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Transportation is Civilisation.—Kipling.