THE FLOODS ON THE WEST COAST.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 224, 20 June 1873, Page 5

THE FLOODS ON THE WEST COAST.

(From the ' Westport Times.') Tuesday last, the 3rd inst., will be long remembered in Westport as a day of dire disaster. Of all the misfortunes heretofore occurring from sea and river encroachment, none have happened so suddenly or resulted in so much loss and destruction of property as the flood that came- roaring down the Buller on Tuesday morning, The first place to suffer was Frank and M'Farlane's blacksmith shop, at the end of Wallabi-street, which toppled over into the river, carrying with it a good portion of the stock of iron and working implements of the proprietors. The gap thus made soon widened, and the instant removal of the small block of buildings on the river bank between Wallabi and Brightstreets was necessary, the inmates having scant time to remove their portable property. Along Wharf-street also the, river bank kept tumbling away in tons weight, and it was seen that every house there was doomed. A bout this time too, Riley's coal wharf with some twelve tons of coal was carried away, and fears were entertained that the schooner Aurora, moored at Cobden-street wharf, but unladen and unballasted, would be carried out over the bar, there being no steamer in the river to tow her to the lagoon for safety, even had the passage across been practicable against the force of the increasing torrent. Chains, anchors, and lines were brought into re-, quisition, and the craft moored as safely as practicable alongside • the wharf, against which she chafed and rubbed dangerously, but at the same ; time formed a breakwater protecting a little of what was still left of the river bank below, and giving a little more i time for the saving of property. About nine o'clock, Mr. Yardley's cottage at the end of 'Bright-street toppled over, and sailed towards the bar, where it broke up, mingling with the wreek floating from the houses further up the stream. All day long men worked and strove with unfailing, though oftentimes reckless, energy to save somethng from the ever encroaching waters. Goods, furniture, boards, iron, and a hundred dismembered odds and ends cumbered the streets, drays, heavily laden, Were dri-i

ven recklessly too and fro, while the crash of falling buildings, and the busy click of chisel and hammer was nearly drowned by the noise of rushing waters. So the time sped on, until, with the lapse of one short winter day, a score or more of buildings had gone down amid irretrievable ruin.