THE FLOODS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 302, 7 February 1868, Page 2

THE FLOODS.

The Dunsfcan District lias been visited (and from all we can Lear it lias been pretty general throughout the Province) with one (if the heaviest fal s of rain ever known by the oldest resident. It commenced o i Sunday evening, just before sunset, and continued without intermission for fully forty eight hours. The Mohneux and the Manuherikia Rivers were flooded, the latter river was higher by 3 feet than at the time of the great flood in September 1806. On the flats from Alexandra to Black's, the occupiers of agricultural blocks have suffered severely ; many of them have lost the whole of their crops, and the result of months'of hard and patient industry. For fully six hours on Tuesday evening, the Manuherikia River at Alexandra, was covered with floating farm produce, and fowls, pi"s, and sheep innumerable. In some few instances, dwellings have baen carried away, the inmates barely escaping with their lives. To particularise eases would be impossible, as no single resident 0:1 the flat of the Manuherikia has escaped. The fall of rain on the Dunstan, Kakanui, and Mount Pisa Ranges must have been particularly heavy, all the creeks taking their rise in those mountains were swollen into rivers, and culverts and crossing places were everywhere washed away The road between Clyde and Cromwell was so much damaged, that no vehicle could pa s till a late hour on Wednesday ; between Cromwell and Edward's Punt, a number of culverts have been carried away, also a large portion of the retaining wall at the Roaring Meg and Gentle Annie. At the Arrow Bluff, the retaining wall has given way, and the road-way washed into the river, the damage here is of a very serious description, and it will take a long time to repair the road Between the Morven and Nevis Ferries it is utterly impassable even for foot passengers ; the old track round Gentle Annie has now to be resorted to. Such a disastrous storm of rain has never visited this district, since the opening of the Goldfields, and it is to be hoped that no similar occurrence will over be experienced. The damage done to the roads might in most cases have been obviated, had drains and culverts on the lines of road bordering the rivers been properly constructed, however, we must not blame the present Engineer of Roads ; all of this workwas clone before ho took office, and his chief duties are mostly confined to rectifying the ■ mistakes of his predecessors. The present difficulty suggests, that it is high time, that something practical was done towards keeping the roads in proper repair, and we believe that were the repairs let out annually in small contracts, that much damage would be prevented, while their ordinary state of repair would be a vast improvement, upon what is now the case, under the present system of Government day labor.