DREADFUL GALE IN NORTH CANTERBURY.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1139, 6 January 1874, Page 3

DREADFUL GALE IN NORTH CANTERBURY.

The Lyttelton Times of the 24th 'ultimo gives the following account of : a destructive gale experienced in the neighborhood of Eowai Pass, about 40 'miles north of Christchurch :—" The 'crops'in' this district up to Friday last were looking splendid, andthe : farmers were contemplating some recompense for the bad harvests for gome years past. Their prospects are somewhat gloomy, owing to a strong nor'wester 'which sprung lip on Friday, increased in violence on Saturday, and about noon on Sunday caused those who had thatched houses to fasten down the thatch with ropes and posts. The Kowai Pass Hotel suffered a little, having some of the windows blown in To save the other windows facing the north-west, Mr Bailey had to nail boards across. The shingles were nearly all stripped off the north-west facing;'of the old building. Mr Eraser had his chimney blown, and oil-can on the top was carried away like a feather. The'crops suffered considerable 'damage. Those in ear were a good deal straw-broken. The latter crops, ahout six inches from the tops downwards, were lashed to threads, and they have now quite a brown appearance, but they would probably recover : again with a day's rain Many of the farmers were late in getting their oats in; had it been otherwise, and the "crops had been getting ripe, it is a 'question if they would have been worth the trouble of reaping."