NAPIER'S YESTERDAYS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 7, 23 January 1937, Page 2

NAPIER'S YESTERDAYS

CHARLES PRICE

by

AN "OLD MAN" flood

(xm.) Flood® are something like the poor, if we do not have them alway® with us we at least have them so frequently that we become more or less accustomed. to them. Not that people like them any more on that account, for floods are not what you would call really popular things. Thore are small floods and large flond®, babv floods and old man floods to use a modern comparison, and while no one ®eems to look upon flood® as beneficial visitations, one has J>nly to loek out on the vast etretch of land estending sonthwards almost from the base of the Napier hills to Awatoto and Meeanee to realise that, floods to this district at least have been of some benefit, for the whole of Napier South and of the new area of Marewa, the Richmond Bloek and a great doal of land round Riverbend road and Greenmeadows has all been reclaimed with silt brought down by the silt-bearing Tntaeknri river. In addition to this, much land about Meeanee, Pakowhai and other flats adjacent to Napier have had the land raised con«iderably by the addition of silt brought down by the river when in flood. So that, in spite of the disasters which have been oceasioned at times by floods there i® isomething to offset this, and perhaps if a strict balance-sheet were made up it would be found that the loss from floods was not greater than the gain from floods. Perhaps the Napier Harbour Board may have a different opinion, for it has cost the ratepayers of that body quite a large sum during the past flfty or sixty years in dredging the silt brought into the Inner Harbour by the frequent floods. ,

However, I am digressing somewhat from my theme, which is an "old man" flood. I have »e©n that description applied to the big flood which visited this district on Good Friday, 1897, and which did mueh damage and caused serious loss of life, and I have seen the same term used to dwcribe other big floods. I know the floods thus referred to were not baby floods, so I will agree that the term ' ' old man" flood fits them very well. But I doubt if any of these floods, though they were very large floods, were quite as big a» one which visited the district somewhere about 1870, 1 fancy. This flood ranks with the 1897 flood as the two largest I can remember. In, the earlier flood the waters eovered all the flat portion of Napier to within a very short distance of Hastings-' street. My parentis at that timo were living in a small cottage on the hillside nearly opposite the Carlyle street entrance to Holt's timber yard. When the flood was at its beight, to look out from our elevated position was to see nothing but water everywhere. The tidal aTea which occnpied the spot where Napier South and the Richmond Block now are was almost like a vast inland sea. Even although the White road, as Hastings street south was then called, was not covered by the waters, it wa® such a narrow strip that it was not visible as far away as we were, and in any case the distance between the bay on the one side . and this inland eea on the other side was much less than 100 yards at many points of the road. All over the flat» the. fence topg wctb covered by the flood, and all travelling

was done . by boat for two or threO days, for boatg went nearly np to wnere Blythe'* now stands. Bread, meat and' groceries were, all obtained ' ' ' trom a single shop in Hastings street in each instance, and were generally delivered by boat. Hill residentk conld proceed along the hills and reaeh Hastings street via Shakespeare road, and so obtain their food supplies. My father went through Colenso 's paddock on to Napier Terrace, thea acrosa Harvey, Sealy and Shakespeare roads to Hastings street, and- so brought honje the baeon. Another featnre of the earlier flood was that there was ,no sudden rise in the height of the water caused by the breaking of a protective bank, such as occurred in 1897, bnt it was the result of a long-continued and^ heavy rainfall with which the rivers werd unable to cope. A usually happens there were some incidents of a hnmorous eharacter — humorous, that is, to all except those immcdiately eoncerned. One rosident of a cottage at the lower end of Car-i lvle street had been np town in a flat' bottomed punt which he paddled with one oar, canoe fashion, nsing the oar alternately on each side. He reached town all right and wai Is returning, fnlly loaded (both man and boat I think) when the boat strnck a fence post where Magill's shop now i k, and overturned. No harm was done to the boat, nor the man, bnt tbe bread, tea, sugar, onions and meat -were not improved by the soaking, nor do I think they were all recovered. I am quite sure the tea and sugar were not anyway.