THE ASHLEY IN FLOOD

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21954, 1 December 1936, Page 10

THE ASHLEY IN FLOOD

EFFECT OF HEAVY RAINS LITTLE FEAR OF DAMAGE ALT. FARM WORK AGAIN DELAYED * • / Fed by fairly continuous heavy rains since last Friday, the Ashley river last night reached the highest flood level since the disastrous storms of January, and other rainfed rivers in North Canterbury were also in spate. For some time the engineers and workmen on the

banks of the rivers had an anxious time as the river continued to rise hour by hour yesterday afternoon, and by evening the Ashley and the Eyre were running bank high. However, after 9 p.m. the level began to drop slightly, and although reports of rain continued to come from the watersheds, the men ceased their vigil soon afterwards, feeling confident that no trouble would occur during the night. It was only at very isolated parts that the flood water in the Ashley lapped the bottom of the stopbanks, and nowhere did it come any distance up the banks. The water rose very quickly, as. up to midday, the river was discoloured and only a few inches above normal, but early in the evening the gauge at the Rangiora traffic bridge showed the level as four feet above normal.

The Eyre also rose considerably, but before the night was far advanced fears of danger of the river breaking its banks and flooding the adjacent country were allayed. It was not possible to ford the stream near Oxford, and a horse and cart managed to get through only with great difficulty early in the evening. The inland route to Kaikoura was absolutely impassable late yesterday. as several creeks were not fordable. Here the heaviest rain fell; five inches were recorded since the storm began late on Friday. Although no definite advice was available last evening, it was considered certain that the route to Hororata over the Bealey ford across the Selwyn was also impassable, and the Hawkins river would not be fordable by the railway bridge. This river usually has no water in it, but is liable to sudden rises, and although the service car got through last evening without any difficulty a fresh was expected. The Waimakariri rose gradually all the evening, and at midnight the level was still increasing very slightly. However it is only very heavy rain in the back-country which brings rivers such as the Waimakariri down in heavy spate, and workmen at the construction camp at Stewart’s Gully were not apprehensive after midnight. There was no danger of a serious flood, although the river will probably remain high for some time. In the Country For a week, in many parts of the province, iarmers have not been able to do any shearing, and the general heavy rain/has delayed the start four or five more days at least. One effect of this has been that farmers in the middle and southern parts of the province, who would normally be preparing for shearing now, have no hopes of obtaining shearers for another fortnight or three weeks, and there is a prospect of some men having shearers on their stations at the same time as harvesters for the grass seed and oats. Farmers in the far north of the province had ample warning of the rain, and although there will be very little or no loss of stock, many will lose some hay. as the grass has been badly beaten down. The recurrence of heavy rain has been perturbing to the farmers. A considerable area of oats is now well in car, and in some of the earlier districts the crop is beginning to turn colour. The wind and rain are likely to beat these forward crops down. Wheat crops in the heavier land districts are unlikely to fare much better. There is a big body of straw in the heavy land districts, and lodging is probably inevitable in such cases. It is fortunate that the succession of drying nor’-west-ers offset much of the effect of the earlier rains, but a few weeks of settled weather are anxiously awaited by growers to enable the crops to develop. The saturation they have received will make them more vulnerable than usual to the attacks of mildew and rpst, should a period of warm, muggy weather set in. Mildew was reported in some of the Mid-Canterbury crops a few weeks ago. but its spread was checked by the nor’-westers. The soft weather is having a bad effect on fattening feed, and lambs are not finishing off satisfactorily. Growth is very rank, and the present downpour is likely to encourage the growth shooting to stalk. Though the area of inconvenience is comparatively small in respect of haymaking, the individual losses in this section of farming will be much heavier. Many growers of lucerne were delayed with the first cut on account of the broken weather, and a good deal of the leeway in mowing was completed during last week, when the weather appeared set fair. However, the rain has caught a big proportion of these crops in cock, and their value will be greatly reduced if not totally lost in some cases. Little Damage in City Several branches were torn from trees in the city by the high southwest wind which accompanied the rain, but apart from tins there lias been very little damage in the city. One of the big trees on the west side of Hu; Cathedral plot was stripped of two big branches late yesterday afternoon, and in various parts of (he city small branches strewn over footpaths bore witness to the strength of the wind. The storm-water channels wore running fairly full most of the clay, but there was practically no flooding in the streets. All through the prc-.itice the rainfall so far this year has been well above the average for a completed year, and in some cases the surplus has been as much as nine inches already. The total fall for the first ll months this year is more than 32 inches, and for the full 12 months in 1935 the fall was 22.07 inches, and in 193t 2G.04 inches. There was no sign of the storm abating at I o’clock this morning. The fury of the wind in the city seemed rather to have increased, and heavy showers of rain were falling fairly steadily, driven from the south-west. Early this morning the total fall for the previous 24 hours was 92 points.