LATER PARTICULARS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 31 March 1913, Page 5

LATER PARTICULARS.

RAILWAY COMMUNICATION CUT OFF. HAYSTACKS FLOATING DOWN THE RIVER. DAMAGE ESTIMATED AT £200,000 INVERCARGILL, Last .Night. Railway communication from Gore to the soutfh has been cut off since late on Friday night and it is doubtful if it will "be restored to-morrow. At Gore there were five feet of water in tihe main street on Saturday. Enormous damage has resulted to . shops and! busiiness premises. Ai large number, of plate-glass windows were broken. ; Hay-stacks, brought down by . the . river, were landed in a monumental ■ mason's yard and smashed seven or eight -' . "Stock caane down the river in great numbers, also sheaves and stacks. ■ The estimate of public and private damage alotne is £IOO,OOO. Reports from the Five Rivers district indicate, that the flood there is particularly bad, and a heavy Joss of stock and crops has 'resulted. j On the Mataura river, -near Gore, partitions have been erected to prevent the hrigde being ca.rrit i <] away.. Mr I)oodb, a farmer at Alatauxa, lost a thousand sheep. One htmdrad a.nd fifty families in Matatnia 'had! to be lodged on the higher levels,! and 105 people took refuge in the paper mills all day cn Saturday, food being sent to them by means of a wire. The mills were much damaged, the estimated loss beting over £IOOO. ! , There is a big washout on the main line south of Mataura, the .railway witr the embankment an<j traffic road adjacent to the bridge being washed away for several chains. The flood was also very extensive ill the western di§trict ; reports in■iloatlng that there have been extensive washouts on tlie railway fit Ffiirfax, Oporo, Makarewa, and Willi on, and also north of Winton, , At OtaTitan a man named Younger was drowned on, Saturday when attempting. to rescue .some stock. ~ One..farmer at Makarewa estimates his at .£6OO,- and there are ; n any others who liave suffered equally with Mm. ' " ' At Gore on Saturday there were several hundred people marooned on the railway patform. They sent to Inveroargill for provisions, and Police Imspector Norwood, with a party of assistants, took up a motor lorry with a load of bread, reaching Gore at 11 o'clock on Saturday night, after a most strenuous journey. Wvndham is completely cut off, and it i s feareti that the traffic, bridge over the Mataura river, dose to th<j town, has been carried away, Numerous road and vadwoy bridges in various parts of Southland have been destroyed. Two houses and sheds innumerable have been washed down the /Mataura •. river. / .It is stated r tlmt the cries _()f cattle being swept down the jV'.'itiiura river, near Gore/ were l heartrending. To-day {Sunday) is beautifully fine, and the waters aue everywhere reieding .' Hie flood is undoubtedly a. leeord one.The damage'must amotint to several hundred thousand pounds. The only two railway lines which have escaped are the Bluff and Seaward Bush.