AUCKLAND: The ''Trojan'' disturbance duly arrived on Saturday evening, and at the time of wiring (24 hours later) the aftermath is still with us.
The ''Trojan'' first came along in the form of an electrical display, with its concomitant peals of thunder, sheets and streaks of lightning, and a torrential downpour of rain. The wind gradually increased in force until, shortly after 9 o'clock, there came a cyclonic interlude, which swept through the city and near suburbs, playing havoc in several directions.
This outburst, fortunately, only lasted from five to 10 minutes. Dwellings were shaken, iron sheets were torn from the roofs of houses, wooden buildings rocked perilously, and many windows were smashed, including some of the plateglass fronts to shops.
At intervals until dawn to-day the tempest raged furiously, frightening many women and children and keeping a very large percentage of the timid population awake. The fiercest onslaught made by the wind was the first one at about 9 o'clock, but after that the gale died down, except for fitful squalls until 1 a.m.
There then burst upon the city another cyclonic disturbance, accompanied by a deluge of cold rain. Once more houses shook before the force of the wind, whilst windows rattled in the roaring blast. This tornado-like interlude was succeeded by vivid lightning and the rumble and crash of thunder.
A third period of terrifying wind occurred two hours later, and after another interval of sheet and forked lightning, torrential rain, and continuous peals of thunder there came a fourth fierce blow.
A long lull followed during which the wind subsided somewhat, but the rain fell unceasingly, and the sky was more or less continuously illuminated by the brilliant play of the lightning. At 5.30 a.m. the storm spent itself in a final visitation almost as furious as it predecessors.
• The Wakatipu Mail has just celebrated its jubilee by publishing on Tuesday last an extended issue of 10 pages. The first number of the journal was issued on May 2, 1863.
Those, of course, were the days of the diggers, and the Lakes district has seen many changes since that time. Queenstown has developed from its early beginnings into one of the leading tourist resorts in the Southern Hemisphere, and the fame of its magnificent surroundings extends the wide world over.
The issue is a most creditable one to all concerned in its production: the type, matter, and general arrangement are first class. The history of the district is dealt with at length, and in a capable and interesting manner in several articles, these being written by Messrs J Edgar sen., S N Brown, and M Fraer, and the discovery of Wakatipu is described by Mr W G Rees, the first settler.
Extracts culled from the earlier numbers give a lively picture of the old times, and photographs are presented showing the town of the seventies and that of today, and also the original and present premises occupied by the Mail. There is also a complete description of the rise and progress of the paper itself, until it has reached its present modern equipment.
Congratulatory messages have been received by the proprietress, Mrs Warren, from all parts of the dominion, and these are also published, and form a fitting tribute to the enterprise shown by the paper, besides in themselves containing matters of interest to all who have watched or been concerned in the development of Otago. - ODT, 12.5.1913.
