FLOODS ON THE WEST COAST.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1605, 9 July 1887, Page 3

FLOODS ON THE WEST COAST.

Qrrtmouth, July 7. . The flood on Wednesday morning was a Jubilee one with a vengeance. Never was such a flood known here. It was two feet higher than the disastrous one of 1872. Nearly the whole town w.'S inundated. Oaly the terrace portion escaped. The destruction of property is enormous. Evary shop, hotel, and business place along Mawbera Quay was flooded ■three or more feet deep, It was still worse with the piivate residences in the , rear, « here the w'l'er rose above the tables : and beds. From 3 o’clock in the morning until 10 o'clock boats were plying in _ the streets and receiving people. Some ; of the grocers offered large pay to men in

bpats to save their goods, but the reply Was 1 hat human beings claimed first at•h-’ tention, and there was really no attempt to save goods. There were very few boats, and those of the Rosamond and , St. Kilda proved most serviceable, and did a great deal of good, in removing the inmates of flooded houses. Had it not been for the protective woiks bniit on the . order of Sir William Fox in 1872, and the l/- . wharves and harbor works, the whole town would have been swept away, A.a it was the river water was pouring over the wharf, the loaded trucks of coal looking . Is it they were afloat, while ic fhe middle, where the force of‘ the torrent was, the ■ water wjb nearly three feet higher than where it touched the banks, The flood water was almost . teaching the

decking: of the Cobden bridge, and the pressure against the cylinders must have been soap'Diing terrific, but

the} stood the atra u without a jar. Although the north luibor woiks railway line was recently rii""d several feet,, no

sign of it w-is visib’e all d >y. The w. 01,. bridge office w-is floated a couple of hundred ymds down the ine. The approach

to Cobden bridge on the south side wo brrlc n through, a large channel being scoured out, but the damage is trifling. The current <>n Alawh-r. Qu y and Boundary street was ao strong that a>

times it was impossible to walk about bit. The State School was thrown open to people wi'hout shelter, and most of th sett era had to seek refuge on the tops of homes. Finally they wore rescued by boats, but about eigh y head of c wile were lost. 'there was a report thu Lain Brunner had broken out, and th s had sweil'd the flood. The statement, dots not seem so very improbable, as it wa> between 3 o’clock and 7 o’clock, in tinmorning, and quite unexpectedly, that the river rose higher than it ever was known before, submerging the piiocipa! part of the town from two to five feet. All business was, of course, suspended during the day, even the Telegraph and Post Office being ia the same predicament as all the neighboring premises. A 1 the horses in town had to ha removed to the hills, every st'ble in town being flooded. Ad the occupants of that quarter had to seek shelter elsewhere, many of them going into the Slate school. The water remained in the streets all day, and not before 9 o’clock could people get about. The mains got full of water, and consequently tharo was no light in the streets except what came from upstairs windows, and the town was dismal in the extreme. There is very little oewa from

upcountry. The latest from Brunner ton was that the river at WalNend was twenty feet higher than when the Oohden bridge piers were carried away. The magazine with three tons of powder was swapt away by the flood, and a carpenter’s shop and some outhouses also disappeared. The flood was within two feet of the Wallsend shaft. Judging by the damage caused on the raiiway line in slips through yesterday’s rain, there ia probably a very great deal of damage done in that way sine •, Owing to the continuous rain a number of pigs and sheep in the butchers' pens at, the slaughter yards wore drowned. The principal damage so far is to the stocks of the grocers, drapers, and merchants. An enormous quantity of goods in bond have been destroyed, one merchant alone having £SOO worth of tea destroyed. All the goods on the ground floors are destroyed or gveatly damaged. Three goods sheds on the wharf were fob of merchandise, a great deal of b of a perishable character.’ The appearance of the town this morning is most deplorable. Thousands of loads of shingle are pil 'd up in seme streets, while great holes have been saoursd in otbeis. The town was cut off from all postal or telegraph communication during Wednesday and the greater part of Thursday. Hokitika, July 7. Not much damage was done about the town, but at Ahanra the flood was the the highest known for eighteen years, and many thousands of pounds worth of damage was done.