WAIPAHI.

Clutha Leader, Volume V, Issue 208, 5 July 1878, Page 5

WAIPAHI.

[from our own correspondent.]

At Waipahi the weather has been more severe than was ever known in the district before. On Thursday, the 20th June, a strong frost was followed by a dense fog, which lasted all day, and was partly the cause of the mail coach capsizing on the Conical Hills. When daylight broke on the 21st (which, as it was the shortest day, was not very early), the settlers perceived fully three inches of snow on the ground, and still falling. Since then up to Ist of July the weather has been a variation of snow, sleet, and rain, with the exception of Friday, the 28th, which was fine for nearly 12 hours. The worst day of the storm was the 22nd, when the snow fell heavily, with a strong piercing cold south-west wind, the thermometer standing at 28. Fah. in the houses at 7 a.m., and the barometer at 28.60 inches ; but on the 26th the barometer had fallen to its lowest, 28.35 inches, when fully 10 inches of snow fell during the night. Had the showers of rain not melted the snow the depth would have been very great ; as it was, some of the drifts were very deep, and not a house or hut in the district proved wind or water-tight. The river rose and fell frequently, and great inconvenience was felt by the want of . a bridge to .connect the main road with the railway station. The mail coach of course could not travel, but the mails were carried punctually on horseback to Tapanui, excepting on Saturday, 29th, on which day the want of a bridge was nearly the cause of loss of human and horse life. On the arrival of the down mail from Tapanui at 10.30 a.m. Cobb and Co.'s groom went to the river to meet the mail carrier, and, as the river was high, advised him to take the n»ails over the apology for a footbridge (winch is a disgrace to the district). The groom then attempted to swim the horses over, riding one and leading the other, but the current was too strong and swept them past the landing. He let the horse he was leading go, and with great trouble managed to guide the other to the bank, and scrambled out by the assistance of the flax which grows on the banks. The other horse was carried helplessly down the river for a considerable distance until a turn of the current brought him near enough to the bank to enable Mr Galloway, who had run to the rescue, to grasp the bridle and hold him till assistance and a rope arrived, when the horse was dragged out of the river by main force more dead than alive, minus the saddle, which had been torn off by the water. The mails were, however, taken to Tapanui on Sunday. The evening train from Invercargill did not reach Clinton on Friday, the 28th. About a mile from Waipahi it found the line covered with water, the creek having flooded through the melting of the snow. The night was dark, so thinking discretion the better part of valour the engine was reversed and put back to Waipahi, where the train remained all night, and returned at the usual hour in the morning to Invercargill. But the water had done so little injury to the line that the morning train on the 29th passed through to Clinton in safety.