THE SOUTHERN FLOODS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1004, 20 November 1883, Page 2

THE SOUTHERN FLOODS.

News from Palmerston states that Foster, another of the passengers in the buggy from which Hobbs lost his Me, died this afternoon. He leaves a wife and two children at Palmerston. The conduct of the two young men Sloan who went to the rescue of the party on Saturday night is spoken of in the highest terms. One of them dived after Foster, and brought him out by the hair of the head. They had a small boat, and it capsized, and both had to swim ashore. At the inquest on Hobbs the Coroner specially thanked the Sloans on behalf of the jury. All accounts of the floods speak of the water as having risen wich unexampled rapidity. An officer of the Education Department, who was proceeding to Naseby, via Palmerston, on Saturday, informs the Dunedin Star that he never witnessed such a remarkable rise of water since he has been in the country as he saw at Flag Swamp on Saturday afternoon. But for the warning of a farmer, he thinks he must have met with a very serious accident in his anxiety to make Palmerston that night. On reaching the approaches to the Pleasant Creek bridge he found it impossible to proceed, and so dangerous was his position then thathe was compelled to get out of his buggy and grope his way in order to turn his horse, the water being up to his armpits. On returning to Flag Swamp after an absence of scarcely half an hour the water was fully 3ft over the road, and the local schoolmaster might have been seen with the water up to his chest gathering his goods and chattels into the schoolhouse with a hay rake. The residents of Flag Swamp do not recollect such a severe flood. The waters everywhere appear to have subsided almost as radidly as they rose. A strong south-wester set in last night, accompanied by rain. The Taieri Plains are flooded, but the damage is not serious.

The Dunedin suburban borough of Maori Hill will probably have an expenditure of L4OO entailed on it by the floods, and North-east Valley of L3OO. The particulars to hand about the drowning of Mr Charles Eddie, manager for Mr ThomasCalcutt, who is Valuator of Lands taken for Public Works purposes by the Government, show that he was proceeding in a single buggy to meet a train at Goodwood station. He was warned of the danger, but made light of it. He crossed the Pleasant River bridge safely, but hia buggy was completely washed away at a dip in the road over which the river was running. Some men on a hill near by saw the accident, but could do nothing. Eddie’s body was found on Sunday morning a quarter of a mile away, and the horse a short distance from the body. The buggy has not been recovered. The rainfall at Palmerston in twelve hours was 2 51 inches.

The following account of the fatal accident at Palmerston is given in yesterday’s Morning Herald-. —Owing to the recent heavy rain the traffic on the Northern* and Southern railway lines was partly suspended on Saturday last. Several slips on the line between Palmerston and Dunedin were reported, and the Christchurch express having been ordered ’to remain at the former place, the accommodation of Palmerston was tested to the utmost by passengers returning the Christchurch and Ashburton races. A party consisting of Captain O. Halgeaon (of the barque Camille), Messrs Allan Hobbs, William Foster, John Curtis, J. Paterson, and F. Guinness hired a buggy with a pair of horses for the purpose of driving to Dunedin. They left Palmerston at 7.20 p. in. on Saturday, and all went well until they reached Pleasant Valley. It appears that they had driven about nine miles when, owing to the quantity of water on the road line, Mr Foster unfortunately piloted the horses over a bank into a large water-hole about Oft deep,nearMrSloan’s house. The horses commenced to plunge fearfully, but they could neither pass the fence nor recede. This accident occurred shortly after 8 p.m. As the occupants of the buggy jumped into the wa*er their cries for assistance reached the ears of Masters W. and J. Sloan, two youths about 18 and 15 years of age respectively. Notwithstanding the danger, which was greatly increased by the darkness of the night, these young gentlemen ran to the spot, where they observed the horses unmanageable,'and the passengers endeavoring to reach the laud. Master W, Sloan stripped and jumped into the water, while his brother got a boat, and by these means they saved Messrs Foster and Curtis from a watery grave. When they found the water rising above the seat of the buggy, Captain Helgeson, Mr Paterson, and Mr Guinness jumped into the stream and swam ashore. Mr Hobbs was unfortunately unable to swim, and after crying for assistance he was drowned, his body being discovered underneath the buggy. When Mr Foster was rescued he appeared to be quite exhausted. The heroic conduct of Masters Sloan was such as to deserve public recognition. Owing to the floods they had been left in charge of a cottage near the road while their father and other members of the family removed to a house several chains distant. The two horses were drowned and the buggy was slightly damaged. No time was lost in communicating with Mr Sloan, who had the unfortunate man removed to his house. Here they were supplied with dry clothing and other comforts. One of the rescued men writes to us as follows :—“ The kindness of Mr Sloan (fanner) and his daughter, and of their neighbors, Mrs Paterson and her daughters, is never to be forgotten." The Waimate correspondent of the Timaru Herald in a letter dated last evening, says :—“ In consequence of damage' to the line at various points from the effects of Saturday’s flood, trains will not run on the Waimate Gorge railway until the line be cleared. There is no very serious damage at any one place. Two or three culverts are injured, the line in some places is scoured, and a slip at the cutting near Waihao Forks has occurred.The railway bridge on this line over the Waimate Creek had a narrow escape. If the flood had not subsided when it did, the long embankment at the north side would have been swept away. The County road through the Gorge has suffered very much from the flood. L2OO will not be sufficient to make good the injuries to it and the bridges. Several culverts and parts of road near Calvert’s on the Main South road between Waihao and Otaio are damaged. The culverts and water chan ■ nels in no case were sufficiently large to discharge the great overflow of water which occurred. On the whole the public works in this district have escaped better than was expected on Saturday evening. There is hardly a farm of any extent on which damage has not been suffered in the shape of injury to fences, where creeks, entered or discharged. It was feared a large number of sheep and lambs would be lost. Although on the flat land convenient to the railway line some loss has been sustained, it is not, however, great, the flood subsiding before much mischief was done. I have not heard of any large amount of damage in the Waihao district. The crops in places where the water flowed in a current over the ground are injured, but the fine weather on Sunday wrought a wonderful improvement in the appearance of the country. The Bush road near Mr Rickman’s is in a rather dangerous state from being scoured, and the crossing of the Hook river between Mr Adams’ and Mr Medlicott’s farm is rendered impassable, their being a drop of seven feet from the road to the present level of the river. As there is no house

near this point it is of importance the fact should be known. The rain eased off on Saturday evening between five and six, bub the weather continued vety damp, with a dense fog until 11 p.m., after which it cleared and remained fine until about 2 p.m. to-day, when the sky assumed a threatening aspect, with a cold wind from the south. The rain meter in the Waimate County Council office registered 3.68 inches of fall from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, during which thirteen hours there were two when the rain was not heavy."