Bad Weather down South.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 10, 11 July 1895, Page 2

Bad Weather down South.

AN EXTRAORDINARY LAND SLIP. GREAT LOSS OF SHEEP. (Per Press Association.) Christchurch, July 10. The snowstorm this morning was the heaviest in the district for years. It thawed very little during the day and there was a very sharp frost tonight. It is feared there will be a great loss of sheep in the back country. Reports from Banks Peninsula state that most of the roads are blocked with land slips caused by recent heaey rains, last night. A slip of extraordinary dimensions at Pigeon Bay started at six o'clock and rushed into the sea with such force as to raise a tremendous wave which swept across Pigeon Bay, from Holmes' Bay side, and swamped the road for a distance of half a mile, a number of families on the Pigeon Bay locality leaving their homes fearing 1 further slips, the hills being dangerously fissured. News from the country districts stated that the fall of snow has been very heavy. The West Coast road has been blocked by previous falls, and foot of Porter's Pass is the furtherest point to which vehicles can be taken ; from thence to Craig Selbourne the snow varies in depth from 3ft 6ins to 15ft. A narrow track has been cut for pack horses, but it is feared it will be filled again by this morning's snow. The mortality among the sheep in this district is very heavy, and it is stated 20 per cent of those got are very weak, and have been subsisting by eating the wool off the old dead ones.