HEAVY RAINFALL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1145, 26 February 1884, Page 3

HEAVY RAINFALL.

The Geraldine district has, since our List issue, been visited by a heavy flood. The weather, taken altogether, during the previous week had been favorable for harvest operations, and on Friday List the climate was quite tropical. By many it was considered that this only portended a change for the worse, and their predictions have been fully verified to the letter, for at an early hour on Saturday morning last a drizzling rain set in, lasting on and off till shortly after six p.m., when heavy rain began, continuing throughout the night and all day Sunday without any intermission. The hitherto dry bed of the Waihi river soon began to he covered with water, and on Sunday evening last was almost bank to bank with the swoollen rapid still increasing. The current made a dead inset on the bank of the old brewery section, undermining it, portions, now and then giving way and falling into the deepening stream. The streets in the township werefloodfd, the side channels presenting the appcrr:--ance of small creeks. O'.ving to an old watercourse at the back of Messrs Mundell and Co's stables having been partly filled up with rubbish, the water overflowed and went through the garden into Mr Mundell's . private house, and the stables were also flooded for some time till steps were' taken to let the water off. The water in the river Waihi was up to the flooring of the footbridge opposite the Geraldine Hotel. Of a sudden the rain ceased about 9 p.m., and was succeeded by a bright starlight and frosty night. The sun rose yesterday (Monday) morning in a cloudless sky, but the first part of the morning was intensely cold. The Southern Alps, which for some little while past had been denuded of snow, are again draped in their white mantle. The river Waihi, reached its greatest height about midnight on Sunday after which it fell rapidly. It was intensely cold the first part of yesterday morning, the sun having scarcely any power. At the Geraldine Flat, although there is a quantity of water laying about here and there, no particular damage has been done. Most of the crops are either in stook or Black, but still there is a considerable breadth of land yec scarcely ready for harvest operations. The same remarks can apply to Pleasant Valley, and although there was a good body of water in the Hae-hae-te-moana river no damage was done thereby, as far as has at present been ascertained. The coach from Geraldine to Orari had yesterday to go round by the old road by Mr Postlethwaite's, as, from the muddy state of the water running across the usual road to the Orari, it could not be well ascertained if the fords had shiftsd or not. In the Temuka district all the rivers were swollen, but little damage was done. Yesterday was beautifully fine and warm, and if the weather should continue so, the damage done to the crops by the previous 24 hours' downpour will not be so, great as might have been expected.