THE DEVASTATED AREA.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 144, 20 June 1929, Page 8

THE DEVASTATED AREA.

MATAKITAKI AND MARUIA.

BLOCKING OF VAIrLEY RIVERS

■MURCKISON FLOODED IN OLDEN TIMES.

The township of. Lyell, reported to be isolated as a result of the great earthquake, is practically perched upon a precipitous hillside. In fact no one could conceive a. place less secure in the event of a severe shock. It is built high up the mountain side, overlooking the Buller River and Alpine Creek, and may be discribed as a township without backyards. On one side of its single street the houses are built in excavations from hill, and on the other lofty piles support the rear walls.and,floors. In the palmy days of the Alpine mines the Lyell was a busy centre. It boasted of five hotels, dance halls (one of the latter built out over the hill on 20ft piles), courthouse, banks, etc., but the passing years has left is shorn of prosperity and attraction.. The Buller Gprge extends on either side of the township, the road winding along the river course, with possibilities of sheer drops into the turbulent waters below that make one shudder to even think of earthquakes. If the Lyell has. been hit anything like as hard as Murehison the consequences should be serious. Murehison, on the other hand, is built upon rich, level country at the confluence of the Buller and Matakitaki Rivers, and the force of the earthquake must have been frightful to have caused the havoc reported. The Matakitaki Valley narrows gradually upward from Murehison. There is no actual gorge in the accepted sense of the term until the Six-Mile is passed, but the mountains rise thousands of feet on either side, and at one time were clad to the summit with dense birch forest. Even the valley road rises 850 feet in three miles. The original homestead of the Morels was built on an extensive fiat, and it is almost inconceivable to think that a lAnd slide could have swept right across the river and caused such havoc. Mr. C. Morel, the victim of the disaster at this point, was, apparently, the eldest son of the late M. Gustave-Morel, an early Swiss settler of a very line stamp. •The Maruia River runs a parallel course with the Matakitaki, and the homesteads destroyed in that valley would be about the same distance up the river from, the Buller as the Morel,'s property —in fact almost in'a direct line from one watershed to the other. The blocking of the Matakitaki Rivdr holds the, utmost danger for the people of Murehison unless the' waters escape gradually, It is interesting.-, to recall that many years ago, in the early digging days, Murehison was partially swept away by a big flood. One night the river changed its course by about a mile, and; the publican and other residents woke up next morning to find themselves on' the opposite side of the river to that which, they occupied when they went to sleep. The reported blockage of'.the river at Glenhope is also fraught with tragic results, if iit is anything like early messages ' indicate. ; Throughout its course from Glenhope to the Matakitaki junction the Buller is in normal times a rushing torrent, and if the pent Up waters in the two rivers'-are let loose at the same time enormous damage seems inevitable. ' . °