The Floods.

Bruce Herald, Volume XI, Issue 1017, 11 June 1878, Page 5

The Floods.

<• As]w6 anticipated iii our last, great damage has been done throughout the country by the floods, the result of the almost continuous rain from Monday to Friday last. Locally we have been cut off from proper communication with Bunedin since Friday, but this is no solitary instance, as everywhere bridges have gone down an 4 damage . has been caused to railway lines. No down train started from Dunedin on Thursday, it being deemed unsafe to venture with one, and that this was correct was shown the following day when it was found impossible to get the engine past Mcsgiel. A telegram from the Balclutha correspondent of the Bruce Hebald, which was published as an extra, also notified that a quantity of the ballasting on the line at Lovell's Creek had been washed away, and that interruption was also caused there. In the meantime those who wanted to go to town had to drive as far as Mosgiel,

Taieri plains were made aware of the very great extent of the floods, the water being " oat " to -a great depth everywhere, and the course of the river being* marked by a teething torrent in its midst. Some damage had been caused to the line between Milton and - Clarksville, but this being of a trivial nature was speedily repaired, as was also the break in continuity at Lovell's Flat, and on Saturday an engine from Balclutha was able to get to Otakia. But between Otakia and Greytown, in the neighborhood of Mr Allan's place, heavier damage had been done, and though the railway people worked hard all Saturday and Sunday, it was not until noon of Monday, that through communication betwaon Dunedin and Balclutha was restored. The Lawrence line suffered ©yen mow severely than the main line, aucl. one slip at the Round Hill. Tunnel was not cleared away until Monday night. | Qn the Outram Branch Railway, too conI siderable damage was done, and at one time, owing to a mistaken telegram, it was reported that the bridge over the Taieri had been swept away. This was, however an error, but so much of^the permanent way was injured, and so necessary was it to reestablish communication on the main line} in the first instance,- that some time will necessary elapse before the West Taieri railway is again in order. On the lines north of Dunedin, the damage done has'been the greatest of all, and owing to slips of great size coaches are again running between Dunedin and Waikouaiti, and a fortnight will, in all probability, be past before the railway line is fit for traffic. It is pleasant to write that despite the great violence of the floods on the Taieri, there is not much damage to private property to/record. On the Henley estate three cows and a bullock of such mature age as to hare rendered their drowning a brief anticipation of nature, have been lost, and in no other case that has become public as yet has there been any extensive loss of cattle or of sheep, this though some eye witnesses assert that in places, the flood-waters rose considerably higher than they did last year. In the Tokoraairiro district some of the roads have suffered here and there, and what is known as the Black Bridge on the road beyond Fairfax is reported as considerably weakened. But on the whole no damage likely to be of a serious nature has happened, and we- may congratulate ourselves that the last great flood has*gone by so harmlessly. The heavy rain's of the past week seem to have been general throughout the. entire Colony, from the Three Kings to Stewart's Iqlan'd. Oar. reporters' travelled^ from the _ . viciuity : of Lake Wakatip to Dunedin, and although all the rivers of the southern portion of the province were undoubtedly high the floods appear to have been if anything less severe than in the northern districts. Railway communication has not been at all disturbed, nor even on the portions of the Gore-Clutha line so recently repaired, and which can hardly yet be thoroughly set. In passing over these spots the engine merely "slowed." The passengers from the southern end on Friday were rather surprised on reaching Balclutha to find railway traffic stopped and their onward progress towards Dunedin thus unexpectedly brought to a stand. However Messrs Williams and . Co., put on a special coach to Mil* ton which was at once filled np arid the White Horse Hotel, Milton, was safely reached by 6.30 p.m. On reaching Lovell's Flat, near the Crichton Railway Station, Mr M'Donald kindly stopped the coach and warned the driver of a broken culvert, ahead, where the corner of^ the road was only supported by some six inches of metal. The passengers alighted and the empty coach was got safely across,' after which portions'of the metal were heard td fall into the large hole below where doubtless the passengers would have been engulphed but. for Mr M'Donald's timely waining- The roadway near Clarksville, and opposite Mr Thomas Reid's, .farmer, was deeply covered with water, through which the coach was carefully and safely piloted.