An Incident of the Flood.

Manawatu Herald, 19 June 1902, Page 2

An Incident of the Flood.

By the courtesy of Mr F. Cameron we have been furnished with some particulars of the moving incidents in a day or two’s work at Messrs Stiles & Coley's mill during the flood. He states that on Friday last the hands at 7 pan. started to get the fibre of the low ground, but after working for an hour the water rose too rapidly for them, in fact in getting back they had to wade in places up to their knees in water.

At midnight Mr E. Coley and two ( men started out in a boat across the r paddooks to rescue a man named Reid who had his wife and two children with him in a whare about a mile from the mill. The party were got into the boat but in coming back the boat struck against a fence and capsized, throwing all into the water which was there three feet deep. The boat sunk. All were got safely to the mill site. On Saturday morning after breakfast Mr Cameron and. a mate (G. Dunn) captured a boat which was floating, bye. Though the boat was very unsafe Cameron and Dunn entered it and went for a pull. After crossing a lagoon they met a woodcutter on a horse who had an idea of attempting to ride to the mill for help Of others, so he guided them to the other thr£2 men who-were sitting on a pile of wood, 6r» thjj centre of which they had made a lira. They had been in this position since 8 ft.m» that morning. As. the l)oat would not carry all, Cameron toob op bis position on the pile and let Dunn take two of the men. It took, though the mill was only about a mile away, an hour and a half to make the journey there and back, and Dunn said he would not again attempt to bring the boat . back by himself as the current Whs too strong. Dunn stepped out . and Cameron and one of the remaining two woodcutters made tbs trip* the boat went once more on the Inp to fetch the man that was lift, but ft. boat from another mill picked him up. A canoe was also met into which Dunn got, Cameron intending to take the boat back. He says, “When we Came to tbs paddocks where there was a terrible current running I shouted to George (Dunn) that I oould’t manage to face th# current, and he said to stop and hold on to something and he would come back in the canoe. So I hooked on to a post and sat down to wait fair the canoe. In about five minutes the canoe brought JGeorge, who got into the boat, the canoe paddled.away. George and I pulled for all W 8 worth until we were almost home, when we got into a very strong current that carried us away and swept us along till we struck a wire fence. I had just time to shout to George to throw himself on the wire when the boat capsized, went underneath the wire and floated away bottom up; We clung to the wire for about three minutes shouting for help, when Mr Coley and a scutcher, named Mclntosh, saw us and brought a long rope which they got to us by fastening a piece of wood to the end and floating, it to us, when we were dragged ashore. At the mill there were 85 persona a “ told, and 10 horses imprisoned on about an * are °* portions of which were tumbu££ i Q to r^er. A boat came with relict Sunday morning, by which many left. During the two nights and three days all hands were on a sandhill surrounded by water, with no shelter from the weather except the remnants of soma tents and bundles of fibre. They however had some firewood.