FLOOD DAMAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 78, 2 April 1913, Page 8

FLOOD DAMAGE.

GORE BUSINESS LOSSES

WILL EXCEED £30,000.

(Zf Telegraph.—Press Association.)

GORE, Tuesday.

The damage done by floods in the business quarter of Gore is estimated at £30,000 in three streets alone. This figure does not include damage to buildings and other property. The heaviest losers are: H. and J. Smith, McGruer, Taylor, and Co., and Lewis and Co., drapers, £2,000 each; Mac Gibbon and Co., drapery, groceries, and boots, and Thomson and Beattie, drapers, £1,500 each; Federal Hardware Co., £1,400; Fanners' Co-op. Association, universal stores, Wright, Steyenson, and Co., merchandise department, and A. R. Watson, booksellers, £1,000 each. Smaller tradespeople suffered severely, their losses varying from £700 down to £100, and many are affected in both their business premises and homes. The damage to private houses is very considerable i»deecL Grain stores and the fellmongery also suffered considerably.

It is very difficult yet to estimate the damage in the country. Miles of fencing have been lost, stacks have been removed piecemeal and as a whole, and it is impossible to get an estimate of the stock lost. The disaster will involve the Railway Department in a heavy expenditure, on the Switzers branch line particularly. Cleaning-up operations were continued in the Mataura j>aper mills this morning. The damage to the main race was not so bad as was at first anticipated, and it is hoped that the mills will start again in about a month. At the freezing works the butchers are employed in elearing-up work. The race has been cleaned out, and found to have suffered little damage. The company intends to construct concrete work for,.protection against fu'.ure floods. Silt and rubbish has be?n.cleared away from the electric light machinery, and it is expected thai power will be obtained in about two diiys. .

WAIPORI PLANT STILL IDLE.

DUNEDIN, Tuesday.

Power is ftot yet available from the Waipori' electricity station as a result of the damage by floods, and many city factories are likely to remain idle until Friday, when it is expected power will be restored.