THE BAY OF ISLANDS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVII, Issue 1317, 31 July 1860, Page 5

THE BAY OF ISLANDS.

This district has been visited by what seldom occurs in New Zealand,«-a heavy flood. In a country so well drained as this is, and in which the rivers for the most part are so short, such inundations as those we read of in Australia, causing wholesale devastation, are unknown. This has been, at all events, the heaviest recollected by the natives. A great many sheep are missing, though it be not known as yet how many are actually drowned ; probably, all not accounted for. Some have been found in trees, among the branches of which they had been washed. The store at the Waitangi Palls has been carried away, every vestige gone. The whole coast, from Horotutu to Captain Minkstone's is strewed with goods, casks, prints, &c. Mr. Hansen, who lived in the store, was absent at the time, but his family- -a wife, and, we believe, six children had a narrow escpe. Mr. Irving, of Waitangi, saw things drifting past, and rightly judging that there was mischief up the river, took a boat, pulled up to the' falls — how he succeeded, against ouch a rush of water, we scarcely understand — and arrived just in time to rescue the family, who 1 had taken refuge in the upper part of the house, which, almost immediately after, was carried away. The flour mill at the Waimate has been much - damaged, but we do not know as yet to what extend ' -

Peath has been busy again in the old histi rical Settlement, compcned to, which. Auckland is of yesteiday. We Lave to record the decease of Mrs. Kemp, of the Kerikeri, one of the mations of the mission — one of those who Came out long before New Zealand was a colony, place- themselves unhesitatingly at the mercy of a savage race. Looked up to »nd respected by all, indefatigable to the last, she died somewhat unexpectedly, though she had been ailing for some time before. Surely she has gotten the peace that she stro\e so long to earn. One by one, the early labourers are beginning to fall off. It was but a short time since that we had to announce the death of Mr. Bedggood of the Waimate, one of the best and most industrious settlers the district has known. Always a worker, always pushing onwards, under every difficulty, creating sawing establishments, building his own mill, the principal emplojer of white labour in the district, he succeeded in creating a large business for his family, taking at last nearly all the wheat in the distiict. His success was due, not only to his energy and perseverance, but to his known integrity as well. —June 29.