DISASTROUS LANDSLIP AT PIGEON BAY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1545, 21 August 1886, Page 2

DISASTROUS LANDSLIP AT PIGEON BAY.

Further details to hand with reference to a terrible landslip at Pigeon Bay show that the whole of Messrs Hay Bros.' premisesal Annandaleetation,have been swept ati ay. Mr Thomas Hay heard the slip coming about 9.15 a.m. on Wednesday. He culled his men to take out the four children. Mrs Hay also had to be carried. They ran os fast as they could for tke road. Thomas H.*y stayed to see all out of the house, and then ran himself, the slip nearly overtaking him. Another slip followed, shifting the chimneys aod BettiDg fire to the house, and some time afterwnrds a third slip carried away the whole ot the buildings into the sea and creek. The slips came from the top of the range about 1£ mile» from the house. The beach and the bei of the creek are strewn with debris, and about twenty men were working on Thursday picking np what they could out of the silt. Mr Hay estimates his loss at £BOOO. Messrs Hay Bros.' house, woolahed, and outbuildings were insured in the South British office for £2600.

Sergeant Brookf, who visited the scene of the landslip supplies the following account:-About 9.15 on Wednesday morning Mr Thomas 0. Hay, Mr Itobert Hay, Mr Husband, and three station hands were clearing away the mud that had washed into the house on the previous night, when they heard a noise, and looking up the bill at a distance of about a mfU> they saw a landslip coming towards the house. Robert and Thomas Hay sang out; "All hands clear and run." Some ran into the house where were Mr James Hay and Mrs Robert Hay with four children. The station hands carried a child each. Mr Robert Hay and Mr Husband carried Mrg Hay out of the house, making b)1 haste to get clear of the slip. Mr T. Hay was the last to leare, staying to see that there war* no peoplo left in the bouse. The s'ip was clcse to his heels when he got to the road. For a short lime the slip stopped, a portion of it resting against the house, but only for a minute, when it started a second time, twisting the chimneys of the house, which thsn-took fire. A short time after, and while the house was still burning, a third slip came, carrying the large woolshed, stables, outbuildings and dwelling-houses of the station hands, with the burning resideucs of Messrs Hay Bros.* a distance of 200 yards from

where they originally stood, across a road and a creek on to the sea beach, leaving the whole corner section quite bare, the only thing left to mirk the spot being part ofthe fowl house. The sea beach is all strewn with wreckage from the buildings, from which was recovered the iron safe containing the papers of the Messrs Hay Bros. Some sacks of cocksfoot which were stored in the shed were found on another section 400 yards away. The Messrs Hay Bros, reckon their loss at fully £BOOO. The house and f.irniture ft ere insured in the South Brit'sh for £2OOO.