FURTHER SEA ENCROACHMENTS AT WESTPORT.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1250, 1 August 1872, Page 3

FURTHER SEA ENCROACHMENTS AT WESTPORT.

fUMES, JULY 26.] The regretful, bnt inevitable, duty presents itself of again recording a chapter of disaster similar in detail to the many previous ones, with which Westportianshave been too familiar. On Tuesday at midday, as the tide rose, it was evident that danger impended. The surf washed right up to the rear of the few remaining houses on the beach side of Gladstone street, and the occupants were compelled to instantly bestir themselves to remove their stocks and furniture, despite the heavily falling rain, which continued nearly throughout the day. The work of clearing out and I demolition proceeded until dusk, Messrs Mailer, Graves and Fleming, and Whyte and Pirie removing their stooks and pulling down all fittings within their buildings. Mr Horn had previously got his building shifted a few feet forward on to the street, and hence, for the time, was in comparetive safety. At the Prince of Wales, or Empire, at Clark's Odd Fellows' Hotel, and the adjoining premises to Colvin's corner, the order of the day was to retreat, as the surf came splashing up inch by inch and foot by foot into the roadway. The doors of the Court-house were thrown open, and in a very short time the hall of justice became converted into the semblance of a broker's shop, filled with a heterogeneous collection of furniture, crockery, and bedding. Meanwhile, the street was littered with timber, doors, window sashes, and waifs and strays innumerable, hastily moved back for safety. As night came the labor ceased for a while, and all that owners of property could do was to wait and watch for the next rising of the waters. Between 12 o'clock at night and 1 a.m. the tide raged with unabated power. Two large rollers, following each other at a short interval, broke full on the side of Graves and Fleming's store, a substantial building about 36ft by 20ft. The first roller knocked it round broadside to the beach; and the second caused it to collapse like a house of cards. Fortunately it thus afforded less surface for the action of succeeding waves, and the timbers held together until daylight, when the shattered remains were removed with all possible despatch. Meanwhile the water came sweeping through the other premises from rear to front, and Mailer s building was in preat jeopardy, but it escaped destruction until the next morning, when it also was removed piecemeal. On the other side of Gladstone street, the householders were sore perplexed, anticipating in their turn, the overflow of their premises. On the footpath the water lay ankle deep, and the surf, at frequent intervals, washed over the thresholds of the houses, and even on to the raised bar floor at Oilmen 1 Hotel ; one or two heavy rollers putting Molesworth street all' a- wash, and leaving driftwood, planks, casks, and debris, ; stranded as far up as the Custom House corner. On Wednesday, matters were not much better, every hand that could be obtained being employed in pulling down the premises from Whyte and Pine's corner to Colvin's butchery. At the end of Kennedy street, also, Roche's hotel was. hastily dismantled and the timbers carried back for safety. The tide on Wednesday night fortunately did little damage. Gladstone street, however, presents a most cheerless aspect, being blocked up with buildings and material in ■course of removal. At the river end, the water at high tide washes up to the side of Draghicavich's Hotel, all the once intervening premises having been removed. The publio inconvenience, loss of time and money, and the* general feeling of uncertainty and alarm pervading, seriously impedes the ordinary course of business, and the continuonsly wet weather adds not a little to everyone's discomfort and perplexity.