OVER TEN THOUSAND LIVES LOST. SEVERAL VILLAGES SWEPT AWAY. CRUMBLING MOUNTAINS ENGULF A DOZEN TOWNS. GREAT LOSSES.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 411, 16 October 1889, Page 5

OVER TEN THOUSAND LIVES LOST. SEVERAL VILLAGES SWEPT AWAY. CRUMBLING MOUNTAINS ENGULF A DOZEN TOWNS. GREAT LOSSES.

The Oriental and Occidental steamship Gaelic brings details of disasters in the province of Xii, in the southwestern part of Japan, which have few equals in the history ot Oriental catastrophes. The heavy rains of early August culminated in a tierce gale, accompanied by relentless showers, which turned brooks into rivers and rivers into torrents. Embankments burst, towns were submerged, houses, temples and trees were carried away, and probably not less than 10,000 people perished. Whilo the western part of the province was undergoing this devastation, the eastern districts were the scene of a remarkable occurrence — the crumbling of aeveral mountains, which cost nearly 5,000 lives and wiped out about twenty villages. The nows ieceived by the Japanese papers up to the time the Gaelic sailed was fragmentary, but the whole makes an unusual story of desolation and sutlering. According to the " Official Gazette," the , greatest damage was in the Wakayama district of Kii. Tke Kinogawa River burst its banks a few miles above this point, and an immense volume ot water rushed out upon the adjacent villages and fields like the torrent that swept down the Conemaugh Valley in Pennsylvania, when the Nortli Fork dam above John&town gave way. Forty-three houses were destroyed, 90,288 houses inundated, 9 bridges were washed away, the roal was damaged in forty-two places and the walls in 6,343 places, and 20,424 persons had to be relieved. The number of persons drowned in Higashi - Muro, Nishi - Muro, Arita and Hitaki guns alraast reaches 10,000. A despatch from Kyoto dated August 21st says : The Uji, Kamo and Katsura are swollen. Thirty-fire houses were washed away at Nasshomura and Kiigun, and in two guns Xii and, Kuze the embankment was broken in tour places. Two persons were wounded, 4,270 houses suffered damage, and considerable injury was done to cultivated land. The river Kitsuta has risen to a height of sixteen feet and the bridgcsover it have been washed away. A telegram Irom Wakayama Kencho says : The embankment of the river Kinokuwa was broken, causing inundations un equalled by any previous flood. The greater part of Wakayama wm covered with water, which was moie than ten teet in the deepest parts. In the neighbouring villages a (similar state of things was experienced, and the number of killed and wounded must be considerable. This afternoon the water began to recede a little. About 30,000 people in Wakayama alone have had to be relieved. A latter telegram from Wakayama Kencho says : — Since last night the water has been gradually receding, and now about a third of the town is dry again. The water is still five or six feet; in the deepest parts of the flooded portion of the town. The river Kmokawa, which had risen to a height of about sixteen feet, is now not more than eight feet in depth. At NiBhi-Muro-gun,in Wakayamaken,the record of damage by the inundations was 1,092 houses washed away, 50J totally destroyed, 440 partly damaged and 863 persons killed. Farther down the coast there was a like condition of affairs. One of the statf of officials in the gun (Nishi- Muro) who came up to Wakayama by steamer from Owari and touched at Tanabe, reports that at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon of August 19th the water suddenly rushed into the town of Tanabe, inundating the whole town to a depth of live or six feet above the floors ot the houses. A number of houses were washed away and about 3,000 persons killed. The villages round about for a distance of ten miles were covered with water, and at Asaki Hommura all the houses, numbering several hundred, except eleven, were washed away. A large number of lives are said to have been lost, but this has not yet been ascertained. The flood was caused by the water rushing down from the Takao mountain and by the overflow of Tomita and other rivers. Communication being cut oil' with other villages, no news has yet come to hand therefrom. Unusual inundations took place at Sliinmiyamaclii, Higashi, Sluro-gun, and the whole town is covered with water. At Gobo and neighbourhood in Hitakagun more than 300 houses were entirely washed away and SCO partly so, while over ninety lives were lost. At Kamiyamagi fifty houses were washed away, seventy partially destroyed, thirty persons were lulled and fifty wounded. At Miyamotomura, in Higashi-Muro-gun, over eighty houses were washed away and over thirty lives lost. Tho neighbouring villages of Ukekawa and Kirihata were washed away, and a great number of lives lost. Other villages suffered severe losses both in life and property, and thousands of people are homeless and without food. Though relief corps have been despatched to tho scene, many families are beyond their reach, and hundreds will probably die of want. The damage to property can only be roughly estimated, but it is placed at not less than $6,000,000, and may reach a higher figure.