THE QUEENSLAND FLOODS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4344, 14 February 1893, Page 2

THE QUEENSLAND FLOODS.

Ten Thousand People Destitute Heroie Action of Miners' Wiiues Brisbane, February 12, "It is estimated that £IO,OOO worth of damage was done to the powder magazine by the flood. Great espouse will be inourred ia removing tho Government steamors, including the gunboat Palumah, from tbo Botanical Gardens. The Government has distributed 2000 pairs of blankets, and a largo quantity of prov|3Ksp.among tbo distressed. *WS\ Fifty-two houses wero washed away atFerndale, and many narrow escapes from drowning are reported, Torrents of rain are again falling, and a total of four inches has been registered in tho last twenty-four hours, Several houses in Stanley-street, South Brisbane, are again surrounded by water. A hurricane, accompanied by a terrific rainfall, has been experienced at Bundaborg, 270 miles north of Brisbane, and a rainfall of four inches was reoorded in ten hours, At Ipswich, too, there waß a heavy rainfall, and the Brisbane' Biver is rising 2ft 6in per hour. Painful scenes have taken place at the Eclipse mine, where soveral miners were entombed by the rushing water, and tho wives of- the perished men aro endeavouring to dig through into tho mine. The Government has received sympathetic telegrams from the Governments of New Zealand and other colonies. Up to the present 424 families, re* presenting 2000 persons, have been relieved. The fund has reached £6OOO. It is estimated that 10,000 persons will require relief, absorbing at least £25,000. We hear, says tho Hawera Star, that a great many of the houses in Brisbane are built in a peouliar manner, The whito ant ia very troublesome and very destructive to timber, and it ia the custom with many' . builders, we understand,, to drive piles for a foundation and coyer the top of

the piles with zino or tin, with overhanging edges, to prevent tlio nnta workin» to tlio super structure. On tliis tho buildings nro rested, with no fastening in many cases but their own Weight, any pimcturn of the metal covering being avoided in order to minimis!) tlio chances of tho nuts ascending, In suoh cases tlio flood wateWfcwld no doubt very soon lift the buildings. The Napier Evening News suggests that the Hinemoft bo »t once despatched by tho Government to Bris> bane with a cargo of flour us a presonl from the Colony to tlio widows" by tho recent floods who are in a destitute condition. Tho News quotes an American precedent, when a United States man-of-war was sent to Russia with a cargo of flour as a present to tho sufferers by the famine.