The Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1872.

Evening Star, Issue 2806, 14 February 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1872.

While wc, ou this side of the Island, have been enjoying sunshine and delightful weather, our follow-colonists at the Grey have been subjected to a calamity more wide spread and distinctive than a lire. When the news of the flood at Greymouth reached us, we hoped that the damage might prove overstated, for it was very plain that Greymouth could not suffer alone. A flood like that which has caused such destruction is not like the rush of water from a bursting reservoir that loses force in proportion as it spreads itself. It is a sudden fall of water extending over a district, converting the land into the bed of a sea, and a district into a torrent. We all know that low-lying tracts of country are exposed to occasional floods when they are in the immediate proximity of extended high ground. This is especially the ease when the mountains rise high and abruptly. The short livers of the West Coast are not sufficiently wide nor deep to discharge the sudden rainfall on their water-sheds : hence these calamities must be looked for as the natural course of circumstances. From the telegram we learn that the certainty of such an event had been foreseen, and as it was thought provided against: for there were “protective “ works ” that gave way. What these protective works were, many of our readers will know better than ourselves. We presume they wove embankments intended to confine, direct, or divert the course of the water. It will be well, in view of such widespread destruction, that some inquiry should be made as to the nature of those works, by wdiom they were designed, and how they were constructed, in order that in time to come such terrible losses may be averted. Nothing is so sad as to find that calamities, destroying property, or endangering life, might have been avoided by the application of efficient means, or the avoidance of dangerous ground. Apart from the loss of life, and the certainty that many families will of necessity he reduced to poverty and distress, who, last week, were affluent and happy, there is a public duty which the Government alone can efficiently perforin. It is plain that the case stands thus. As the natural port of the district, Greymouth presented inducements for the settlement of a large industrial population. But there was the draw'back that the ground, or some portion of it was liable to floods. This, of necessity, rendered considerable outlay necessary before men would be justified in investing capital in the building of dwellings, stores, and warehouses. Protective works, whatever they were, were required ; and protective works, so called, were constructed. In faith that they were equal to what was intended, the township extended : the people seem to have believed in their stability, and to have imagined themselves safe. In this confidence they built and traded, and never dreamt that the barrier that had been raised was a mere phantom, fair to look at, but powerless to resist the enemy they feared. It happens often that the fortifications of a town prove strongholds for an enemy, instead of protection against invaders. They invite the very destruction they were intended to guard against. With floods this very often happens. If the barrier be insufficient to resist, it aggravates the destructive force of water. Whether or not this was the case at Greymouth, we are unable to say. In all probability it was; but it is plain that there must have been some fault —and, if so, it should not have been permitted to pass unremedied. ft is high time that we learnt to look intelligently at the losses so constantly pressed upon attention. In times past there w r as a deplorable amount of superstition and ignorance connected with such things. They were looked upon sometimes as punishments for some indefinable offences, and men

were continually striving to find out what were the character's of the people who were subjected to such visitations. There is really no difficulty about the matter; if men place themselves in positions of known danger, and trust in protective works that fail to resist the very encroachments against which they were specially intended to guard, the eviTwhich is thus invited will most assuredly come upon them. We say this in no spirit of unkindness. We should feel we were guilty of a social wrong were we to say one word calculated to lessen the sympathy that all must feel for our suffering fellow colonists, or to check the liberality which will be certainly exerted in mitigation of their distress. They are not wholly to blame. They have placed confidence in those who have professed to possess science and skill to secure them against the loss and damage which have overtaken them, and it is only when such events occur that the public will listen to suggestions. Our desire is to point out that the duty of Governments is to see, that when the works are constructed professedly to protect, they should not be allowed to bo mere traps to deceive. In the present day science can unerringly say whether they are equal to the purpose intended, and if they are not, no matter whether constructed by individuals, Municipalities, or Pi’ovincial Governments, they should be compelled to make them so, for human life and human prospects are too valuable to be played with.