A FLOOD IN THE BULLER.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 839, 20 July 1871, Page 2

A FLOOD IN THE BULLER.

A very heavy flood came down the Buller River yesterday, the volume of water discharged being greater than that of any previous flood experienced since 1868. As the tide fell there was a difference of fully six feet in the altitude of the river and sea, and but that the mouth of the Buller is fully one third wider than on the occasion of the flood of '6B the probability is that the river would have overflowed its banks. The immediate effect of the flood appears to have been the scouring out of the North channel, and dur. ing the whole of yesterday immense stacks of timber were deposited along the beach from the extremity of the spit to the Orawaiti, favouring the supposition that the sea encroachments are at last likely to cease, giving place to deposits of sand that may ultimately restore the beach to its normal condition. At daylight numbers were on the beach busily collecting the driftwood, but were, later in the day, ordered to desist. Although admitted that the presence of timber is not likely to stay the inroad of the sea, it has a beneficial effect in arresting the violence of the overflow, and for a brief interval may be thus instrumental in preserving the threatened properties. Navigation on the river has necessarily been suspended with the exception of a few boats crossing and recrossing the river. A canoe and a cargo boat—the former supposed to have been carried down from the Old Diggings, seventeen miles up the river, and the latter to have parted from her moorings at the Maori pah, were swept down the river over the bar, but were washed up uninjured ou the beach. An incident occurred during the height of the flood which might easily have terminated seriously. A boatman bad thrown the painter to a bystander on the wharf, the boat then being in comparatively dead water; as she swung round, however, her stern was caught by the current and, unable to control the boat, the man was being rapidly dragged over the wharf, and while close to its edge very nearly capsized a person into the river who, unconscious of danger, was viewing the flood. Both men seized the painter and by their combined efforts succeeded in dragging the boat alongside the wharf. The groins which have been constructed during thepast twelve months on the river bank form a very effective protection to it and to the wharves. Previously, on the occasion of floods, huge masses'of the bank were carried away, and the wharves jeopardised by large snags hurled by the flood against the jnles. TJhe upper groin, in diverting the current has altered this state of things. Considerable quantities of driftwood brought down by the river lodged upon the groins, and floated in the backwater caused by these structures, and during the whole day persons were engaged fishing out the logs for the purpose of firewood.