Westland’s Six Floods Cause Major Damage

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28537, 17 March 1958, Page 12

Westland’s Six Floods Cause Major Damage

(From Q±lt Own Reporter) GREYMOUTH, March 16. Six floods over their farms since Christmas have placed the many returned servicemen farmers in the Kowhitirangi valley in Westland in a very serious position.

They have worked hard under the rehabilitation scheme to put their holdings in good order. They have put back into their properties everything they could spare to provide fencing, to turn riverbed flats into first-class pasture land and to sow crops of hay and turnips for winter feeding of their cattle and sheep. Now all their hard work and much of their investment have gone for nothing.

The scenes of desolation in the valley is one which has to be seen to be believed. Miles of fencing wire and hundreds of silver pine posts have been lost completely in the succession of six floods. What were formerly splendid grazing paddocks have been turned into a wilderness of debris, shingle and silt. The men are in a serious position financially and help will have to be immediate if they are to survive and carry on. It is not only returned, servicemen who have suffered. All faTms right up the Kowhitirangi valley and through Kokatahi have suffered similarly, but in most cases the farmers are well established and are able to stand the losses much better than latest comers to the area.

“We sympathise with the people of Balclutha and the Waikato in their flood troubles but, whereas they have been wading in water up to their necks on one occasion, we have had to do it Six times in less than three months,” one of the farmers summed up the situation. “The Waikato people have been lucky enough to have had visits from Ministers of the Crown during the height of their flood but not one of them has been near us,” said several of the farmers interviewed after the last of the six floods late last week.

“We did think our next door neighbour, Mr Skinner (the Deputy-Prime Minister) would have paid us a visit when he was in the electorate a few days ago, and even the Minister of Mines (Mr Hackett) flew back to Wellington from Hokitika without giving us a thought. After all Hokitika is not far from us and surely he could have spared a couple of hours to come and see what we were having to put up with,” said one farmer. Mr Mark Wallace, a Kokatahi farmer who is connected with several of the district’s local bodies, said that the bed of the Kokatahi river had been built up at least three feet by debris brought down in successive floods and the river was now running at the level of the adjoining land. The slightest flooding sent water all over the place. Mr Wallace said he considered his own loss of land was between £5OO and £lOOO in value but as he was an established farmer of many years, he was in a position to stand it. He was more concerned with returned servicemen in Kowhitirangi valley, he said. There were between 50 and 60 of them with holdings of between 80 and 150 acres. Their loss of grazing land and fences, combined with the recent drop in prices, had placed them in a position where urgent Government assistance was necessary. Three Problems Mr Wallace said there were three problems associated with the Kowhitirangi and Kokatahi flooding. In the first place the Hokitika river threatened to flow into the Kokatahi river and go right through the heart of the Kowhitirangi settlement Secondly Vine creek, a typical West Coast mountain stream, had no defined channel and was bringing down thousands of tons of debris, depositing it all over farms in the neighbourhood. Thirdly Doughboy creek, which formerly had a defined course, was now filled up with silt debris and was opening out over acres of pasture country. “The situation has developed into a permanent menace to the district” said Mr Wallace. “Apart from what individual farmers may have suffered, this continuous flooding has had a tremendous effect on the sale and market value of land. From the angle of the Westland County Council, the total rate revenue is approximately £20,000 and yet in three months flooding, the estimated cost of repair work has been £15,000 or 75 per cent, of its receipts. “But- this is not the end. Some form of river control must be effected immediately. We want some Minister of the Crown to have a look at what has happened,” Mr Wallace said. No Farm Escapes No farm between Kowhitirangi and Hokitika has escaped flooding and the water in many instances has been between three feet to six feet deep. Mrs E. Heslin, a widow, has a holding of 150 acres at Kokatahi and it has all been under water with the exception of a solitary acre of high ground. Mr R. Vullumsen, known as Mr Williamson, has lost 100 of his flock of between 700 and 800 1 sheep. •' <

“Unlike the soldiers I can stand it,” said Mr Vullumsen on Saturday. Mr Vullumsen arrived on the West Coast from Denmark 25 years ago with exactly 15s in his pocket. Due to hard work he has gradually acquired property until today he is in a position of security.

Farmers not . so fortunately situated have been hard hit in their attempts to gather hay and sow crops for winter feeding. They have had hay ready for carting in and have wakened to find it washed away and wrapped around the tops of fencing posts or telegraph poles. Most of them have worked long hours resowing turnip and other root crops which had been washed out. One farmer resowed five times and most have resown four times, only to see the seed washed out again. ■lt will mein purchasing a tremendous amount of winter feed from Canterbury.

Sotae farmers had already purchased lucerne which had cost more than £l2 a ton freight. It had been stored in sheds only to be thrown out a few days later after it had been saturated to a depth of three of four feet and heating had set in when the waters receded. “We had to use forks as the hay was like a Turkish bath and much too hot to handle,” said Mr A. C. Marshall, a lower / Kokatahi farmer. Town Milk Mr Marshall said he was perturbed about the town milk supply during the winter months now that all autumn pasture, feed and cereal crops had been lost.- Pasture lands had no hope of recovering from repeated siltings. Farmers wotfld need a lot of money to keep up their guaranteed quotas and in some cases it would be almost impossible. Mr Marshall said it was not possible to estimate the damage done to roads, the approaches to bridges and bridges themselves. A tremendous amount of money had already been spent in repair work only to see the same thing recur six times. “Shifting stock to higher ground has been a major problem,” Mr Marshall said. “It was nothing short of amazing how animals which had never before been in water were to be seen with heads just showing making for higher ground. How sheep survived is a miracle. Ydu would have thought they had been provided with snorkels.”

“Yes, and I always thought pigs couldn’t swim,” said Mrs Marshall “Well, oojscan. They were swimming rourtaSp four feet of water for more than |2 hours and they were actually trying to climb up the walls of the sty by getting a grip on the weatherboards protruding towards them for a width of about half an inch.” In spite of the hardship some of the farmers have been able to see humour in their experiences. Some of the dairy stock of Mr A. McGlashan, lower Kokatahi, were swirled down the raging Hokitika river and were washed up in Hokitika three miles away. They were apparently none the worse for their experience. It was ironical that their landing place was near the dairy factory to which they contribute supplies of milk and cream.. “A Little Moisture” One of the returned soldiers in Kowhitirangi summed up the position thus: “Well, we had a good dry spell in the desert for three or four years and I suppose a little moisture won’t do us any harm. But it looks as if we will have to dig out our pay books and send them to Wellington for casn entries.” ’

“All you could see was the horse’s head and my hat,” said a Kokatahi farmer, describing his feat of swimming his horse across paddocks to see if his cattle and sheep were safe on higher land. It was difficult to sit. on a horse’s back while it was swimming as it rolled first to one side then the other and all one could do was crouch low and hold its mane. Mr L. W. M. Bonner, a bachelor in his seventies, was loth to leave his two-roonied hut at Camel Back and had to be rescued by boat. “It was hard pulling along the roadway against the gushing water,” said one of his rescuers. Mr Bonner has no idea of the size of his sheep losses. • Determination That West Coasters are determined in the face of this adversity was' well demonstrated yesterday afternoon. The annual flower show had been arranged to take place in the Kowhitirangi hall and those who had entered exhibits would not hear of its postponement. The display of ilowers and garden crops was remarkable and it was difficult to believe that only two or three day? before the exhibits had been under a vast sheet of water. The farmers’ main concern, of course, ’is tne preservation of their land which formerly had a saleable value of from £lOO an acre upwards. The land will be completely washed away if hurried Goverment assistance towards, combating flood menace is not 'forthcoming, they fear.