THE WEATHER.

Dunstan Times, Issue 652, 16 October 1874, Page 3

THE WEATHER.

—o— The weather,'which for some time past has been the most unseasonable within the recollection of that venerable individual, the oldest inhabitant, culminated on Tuesday last in a wind storm from the southwest of unprecedented violence. To say that it blew hard, the slightest idea of the force of the wind is not convoyed, as for about six hours a perfect hurricane raged, and such was its strength that buildings were toppled over like houses of cards ; roofs were torn away, and in some instances five and six sheets of iron with rafters andjbattens still attached, were carried up in the air over the tops of adjoining houses, and not alighting for fully one hundred yards. Fronts of buildings were blown out, outhouses thrown over and demolished, and other damage done that only the wind could do ;in fact, the scene was one of confusion and terror, as during the fiercest of the storm scarce a building in the whole town, or at all events on the side exposed to tho full play of the blast; but were shaken to their foundations, and made to rock to and fro, leaving but a faint hope that any would ha saved, however, by the aid shoreing, ropeing, and other devices many were saved that otherwise must have been demolished; increasing the danger were the tin] and iron, which, as if endued with life were swooping through the air like so many birds of prey. About 4 p.m. the wind suddenly as it rose, ceased, and gave us time to sec the damage done. The principal sufferers are Mr Cox, the greater part of the front of his building being blown out and smashed ; Mr Hazlett’s six-stall stable, unroofed; Mr Park’s eight-stall stable, unroofed ; ihe old Bank of New Zealand stable, blown down ; School-master’s residence verandah, blown away; Hospital verandah blown down, building partially unroofed, and stable entirely so. .The other losses, including the breaking of windows, and the overturning of outhouses, and the partial unroofing of buildings are legion, including in the whob evidence sufficient that the storm was violent in the extreme. From Black’s Alexandra, and Cromwell, we hear that the storm was experienced, but from the fact of no damage having been done except in Alexandra where'one building was unroofed, it could not have been so severe at either place as at Clyde. Mr C. Helper’s Butcher’s Gully Hotel situate, on the Teviot road about four miles from Alexandra we learn was blown down during tht gale. Further than this we have have not heard and can only express surprise that the building should have been affected, being most substantially built.