GREAT FLOODS IN CHINA.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 January 1918, Page 7

GREAT FLOODS IN CHINA.

APPALLING LOSS OP LIFE. The typhoon diss iter in part ol Japan is nothing to what is being suffered in China in the province of Chihli (writer the Kew East). Drought throughout the spring and summer, threatening famine on a formidable scale, was succeeded in the late summer and early autumn by havy rains. The rivers debouching upon the Chihli plain from the western hills all burst their banks. The result was a huge lakei .estimated to measure 15,000 square mile?. Most of the Chihli rivers have no. outlet to the sea, but lose themselves, in„ the marshy region north and west of Tientsin. When iloods come upon tliis-region they stay, sometimes for two or three years. The present flpods exceed- anything, that has occurred.for a quarter of a century. The flooded country ..is- rich and thickly populated by agrigulturist?, mostly living- in mud villages. Iu or<!ir>»ry Hood times the water surrounds the villages and penetrates into the streets without damaging the houses. It leaves a rich covering of silt on the fields, and if there is some damage to property it is compensated for by the increased fertility of the land. When the floodr are heavier the houses are invndeij' Jnd r-,'lapse, and the inhabitants have to fl»e, and may not be aWe to cultivate their land for n year or more. This happened in 1912, when 70,000 of the people on the Chihli plain were Wade homeless. This autumn the flpods exceed all experience, and as there is 110 possible means of removing the water it is safe to say that by the time winter sets in millions will have lost their lives by drowning or starvation.

Tientsin, morn or less protected by dykes from ordinary floods, lias been inundated, the native city and the Japanese concession suffering most. Within the city the homes of hundreds of thousands have been destroyed or rendered uninhabitable, while the majority of the Rreign houses in the concessions have two or three feet of water in the lower rooms. Thousands of refugees have come into tlie city destitute and starving. One gruesome story is told of the inhabitants of a village, numbering about lflOO, who set forth 011 rafts made of doors, tables, chairs, logs of wood, and anything that would float, seeking a place of refuge. They were overtaken by a storm, and all were drowned. The situation between Tientsin and Paotingfu cannot be described, for nothing is known of it beyond the fact that the country is flooded and devastated. Tientsin itself Is in a critical position, for rfie Grand fanal, which is in reality, for 100 miles before reaching Tientsin, the course of the Wei River, is pouring water into it. There is the danger of the Yellow River leaving its present course and flowing north into the Wei. and thereafter seeking a new outlet to the sea. Up to Ofctowor 10 there has been no subsidence of the water at Tientsin, and there u grave fear that frost may set in before scheme* for pumping tho concessions dry can bo put into operation. Damage to property in that ease would be enormous when the thaw sets 111, Disease is also feared, for nearly I,O(KMKK) people are dwelling in what is practically stagnant water.