NORTHERN FLOODS

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 77, 31 March 1920, Page 9

NORTHERN FLOODS

DESOLATION AT PAPAROA THE DROWNING TRAGEDIES. ■ (ST TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.) AUCKLAND, 30th March. A New -Zealand Herald representative, who is visiting the scene of the North Auckland floods, says that inspection of the Paparoa Valley, where a record flood occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning, reveals widespread damage at every turn. There have been | many floods in this valley since tha j establishment of the settlement over 50 ', years' ago, but the original residents agree that there has been none to approach this one for height, for volume of water, and for rapidity of current. In Paparoa township the water almost readied the top rail of the bridge over the tidal river, this point being 20 feet abov« the average level. This meant about four feet of water in, houses and shops situated in the lowlying area, which is about 100 yards wide. Fortunately, the tide was out when the flood was at its worst. Had it been otherwise, there would have been a further rise of three feet, and in this case it is doubtful whether the building would have withstood th© force of the water. As it was, some of the smaller buildings were shifted..

Everyone continues to be mystified over the fierceness of the current. Eyewitnesses declare that a wall of water came down the valley, logs and debris riding on it as they would on a choppy sea. The general theory ■ is that a cloud-burst occurred in the Upjter Valley, but if this is so the visitation must have extended over an area of miles, for all steep faces—and there- are many between .Paparoa and the district to the, north of the Huarau Tunnel—are gash-i ed and scarred with landslides. In the aggregate, hundreds and hundreds of acres have slipped downwards, and the chief occupation of the settlers ever since appears to have been digging stock out of th«se boggy slips. This destruc tion can be understood; however, when it is realised that between. 6 p.m. oa Friday and 9 a.m. on Saturday, four inches of rain fell on ground already soaked by half an inch' of rain during the day. The spot on the northern side of the Huarau Tunnel, where five lives wera lost, is one which is far from attractiveI looking at any time, owing to the ravages of the railway construction works; but to-day it bears marks of tragedy. Public Works huts and pieces of them are scattered around in all directions, and corrugated iron chimneys ha.ye been found below Paparoa four miles away. Two huts, which were occupied by the Matthews family, four members of which {the mother and three children) were swept away, are lying in a. tangled mass among some trees. The hut in which Mrs. Cook and her child were caught is reposing in-a hollow which is now a small lagoon, and the bush below the railway embankment across the flat is filled with wreckage. Mr., Charles Chapman and Mr. James Matthews (who lost his wife and three children) were the heroes of the terrible morning. Mr. Matthews's hut was on the bank of the creek in a spot always in danger of being flooded. When he-found two feet of water in the room, he immediately ran with his baby to the bank across the road. He had to swim when taking out the second child, a barbed wire fence lacerating his arms and legs. Before leaving with the third child, he placed his wife and the other three children, on the roof, but before he could once more essay the swim through the tearing current,. the structure was overturned and the four victims were swept away. Prior to this, two men—Messrs. Tom Grogan and James Tate, living in huts on the.flat not far from the embankment —had been alarmed. Grogan, who could not swim, managed to reach a small tree, to which he clung. Tate stuck to his hut, and when it started to float he climbed through the window and safe there until he could grasp a branch of a tree. The men were in this plight, with water up to their armpits and still rising, when Charles Chapman, a irtarried man who lives on the south side 'of the tunnel, arrived. He had run over the tunnel hill, and was already, fatigued. An expert swimmer, he saw that rescue in ■ the swirling water would hardly be pos- I !.sible; so he obtained a ladder and tied , one end of a rope to it. Leaving the other end with those on the bank he ! swam out with the ladder, and when he got Grogan on the ladder it was pulled ashore. Tate was rescued in the same manner. At great risk to his life, Chapman also rescued Mrs. Cook and her child, and an elderly man named Pearce. The reporter states that Chapman, who vanished when he heard that- a pressman was in the district, is the hero of the settlement.