ASHBURTON FLOODED.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 54, Issue 97, 3 February 1934, Page 6

ASHBURTON FLOODED.

SOME MEMORIES OF 1868. 66th ANNIVERSARY TO-MORROW. Sixty-six years ago to-morrow a tremendous flood swept over Ashburton and did extensive damage. In view of the anniversary, the following account of the flood, written by Mr H. Hart, of Greenstreet, which appeared in the "Guardian" on July 19, 1918, is interesting : "In Ashburton the. river liad been oyer all the lower side of what is now the town, up as far as Smith's timber yard and Buchanan's Crown Flour-mill nearly up to the top of the terrace at the back of the police barracks. It had come down the gully which now forms the Domain lakelets, covering the ground where the Post Office now stands. It overflowed higher up the river about Digby's Bridge and a largo stream came down through what is now Allenton. The square block of the saleyards showground in as far as Princes Street belonged at that time to Captain McLean and was rented by the late Hay Smith. , A dray which had been left standing in a paddock where the showground is, was carried away by the flood water and was found afterwards in one of the big holes near where the Tuarangi Old Men's Home now stands. In the old Greenstreet homestead the water reached the third step of the staircase. "A shepherd on the Wanchmore Estate, the late Archie Clark, told me that there was one sheet of water from the Winchmore shepherds' huts to the Westerfield wool-shed, except a spot or two of higher ground. At this time the late Donald Williamson had a place on the Alford Forest Road. On the day of the flood Mrs Williamson was alone with her children, Mi' Williamson being away in Tima.ru. The water rose so high that in her fear of being washed away she tied herself and the children on to the roof of ant outbuilding, from where she was rescued by a neighbour, Robert Millar, in a dray. At the present time people will not believe that such a flood would come, or will come again, but in those days it must be remembered that it was a hard job to get enough sticks to boil the billy with; now the rivei*beds are so blocked with gorse, broom and willows that if a real flood did come the water would have to go some other way."