GREY VALLEY.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1105, 12 February 1872, Page 2

GREY VALLEY.

Disastrous accounts of the destr,actiye effects of the floods continue to ariiye at' '^ Ahaura. The right fork of thelriangahua ' River overflowed its banks on Thursday night, and did great damage to Heettbh. : ;i The street facing the river has been all. but washed away, and several buildings / aremore or less injured. : The water al^o, ,!, found its way into the lagoon, behind ; Reef ton, and lodging there isolated the township. In. the ; Grey Valley .the wops -;' and fencing, of Messrs Ferguson and ;M c Hardy, at the Mawhera Iti station suffered severely, and two bridges were carried- away. At the Ikamatna;' Mr : J. ?; F.? Johnston had a quantily of -"go ods * :;: damaged and partially destroyed at his" receiving store;; near Q'Malley-'s 1 . Hotel." & Mr Johnston's crops were also damaged. Mr James O'Malley lost several head of ; cattle,: and :the culvert recentlyi built by .; the Government between the Ikamatua and the Junction was swept away. At the Little Grey Junction; 'Mr George :i ] Banndn's old store was carried off, the > water leaving only a portion of one. of the chimneys. Fortunately Mr Bannonhad just moved his stock and furniture into his new house. The crops at the Junction are all damaged, more or less. The river broke away down the old road from- g the Junction and inundated a portion of | Mr R. M 'Neil's farm and standing crop. Mr David Donald lost about two acres of. oats, ar^d . t about LSO worth . of fencings Lardi's ßeceiving ; store at the terminus of the : tramway" was ' swept "away/ together ' with a quantity of merchandiae stored in it.; This i loris will fall 'heavily on the new lessees of the tramway,' Messrs A. Mont* gomery and Op. The tramway is much . injured, it being rendered useless i from ' the river to the Totara road at Erskirie's; ' 'i Brandy Jack'B • Creek was backed' tip. by' the Grey River, 1 and the' water flooded afi the country about Doolan and Deare's Jarmi i -;>' Th c; culvert on the main <; "road between Erskine's and Alcorn's farm was lifted bodily 'and carried .some distance away. The traffic has been /reopened at this spot by building a temporary pontoon with portions of the wreck $ of : the tramway. The most singular in- j) cident and providential ,escape,yet related, occurred at that port of the Grey River opposite Reid's station; A loaded cargo 1( boat, belonging to Mr A. Constantine, left the old Ahauraon Wednesday .even- ; ing, intending to make Lardi's landing that night. The river rose so, rapidly that i ;the boat had, to be moored for safety at one of the numerous islands with which the river is here studded. During Thawday night the water covered the island, and after dark it ww diacoyered, to the dismay of the crew and passengers, that theislandwas.beirig washed away bodily.;^ There was a lady, the wife of Mr William? J Quinlan, of Reef ton, with , |ier fcrar children, among the passengers; and the presence of , these helpless Uttle ones in? ., creased the danger of the situatiQiu. "T1»0,: ; 'boat was, with' great difficulty, clw»iJ of V; f I the now fast disappearing island, and, / thanks to ; .the. pluck; . and , energy of the. ., .. crew, another and larger: one was reached); 'I where the boat was left high and; dry n when the water iiubaided. - The hones were given- up for losty but it appears that after they were cut adrift they made 1 ' the mainland, and at daylight they swam off to the boat again. ' The crops ; generally did not . suffer as ' much as was expected. Friday and Saturday turned fine, with a good sun and a high dry ivincl, which greatly assisted | the farmers in their efforts ' : 'to repair '■-■ damages. ..From Moonlight Creek, the. „ worst accpunts come. "~' r ',.Mx James Davey's i' receiving store arid hotel, at the foot. o£ 7 ,C the creek, is gone; bodily, not a vestige remaining eiiher of It or the .garden, be: longhig to it .'; j&e^ stock .sLthe^tePe,.^,^-, all lost. , The stores qf Messrs White and Garth, and Aikin and Magillj at the middle town, are also destroyed, ; but most of the stock in each building hals-r been saved. Messrs Boyett Brothers'- - ■ i-slaughter-yard and a fine ..bullock were carried away, also the house lately occupied by Mrs Carter. An immense landrj;yi slip took phwe above the township,' just over where the. late? Alexander Barionr was killed. . A slice of the mountain, several aores in extent, slipped away, and sliding, v down into; <the ■'. creet, •■ H* completely >dammed- it tip for !f a :; >''\' time. An eye witness describes the , fall of, this avalarche^^^ as >; somethirig^ ':, terrible -to behold.; He says the whole ' mountain appeared ito, be moving,. and „ .when the lower edjje .' ; of .the slip entered 1 the gulch formed, battle. oreek, instead of - crumbling away Jr breaking T;up,*, the enormous mass bent like. a wave and ascended the; opposite side of ; the ravine ; •■'. to a considerable height before it lost its form. Another landslip ocenrred above •' the Gorge; but this one was* not of such ;V magnitude as the one lower dowa ( the •;-'■ creek. The ferry and other buildings at ! ' " the Old AbaJra were washed away, find ! also a large quantity of valuable merchan- '.', '[l disc stored there. The crops of Jipr D.;".^ .M'Kenna,;bn the southern track of th^; J, Ahaurariwr, opppaite the old town, are all but destroyed. These 'were splendid cultivaticos qf eats and potatoes^ aha> ' considerable progress had been: made' in gajtherirg the oatcrop in before the~flood' came down. The rivor broke through, and wlat the water did not wash away is Jrretriivably damaged by the. mass of fll sand, shingle, and other rubbish carried t. in by the inundation. Muoh • sympathy ' is felt for Mr M'Kenna, as he met with a precisely similar misfortune during the .great flood some years ago. It is not known what havoc may have oooonedl •'-

----below the junction of theAhaura and Grey rivers. All traffic by land down country has been stopped since Wednesday, 7th inst., and news is anxiously waited for. The mail due on Thursday had not arrived at midnight on Saturday, and it is feared that from the great damage done in the comparatively safe upper parts of the Valley, the destruction J in -the low-lying localities will be enorv mous. v