LOSS OF LIFE FEARED

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 110, 10 May 1923, Page 4

LOSS OF LIFE FEARED

l . ■ ■-. • ; • MAN AND BOY MISSING A 1? | BLENHEIM. ! BLENHEIM, 9th May. ' In connection with the flood, fears are entertained for the safety of Mr. E. E. Robinson, secretary to the Spring Creek Road Board. Mr. Robinson and a farm boy left Eobinson's farm, Lower Wairan, last night in a dray for Blenheim. A search party discovered the dray on the roadside in deep water and the horses roaming free with broken harness. Subsequently a vest, presumably worn by Robinson's companion, was found, but no signs of the missing onea were discovered. Some of the grain and produce in store was invaded by the flood, with serious results,'and thousands of bushels of peas, seeds, and grain are irretrievably ruined, and there is much loss by saturation, inoluding bales of wool. In one case, 20 tons of sugar literally melted away. One dealer in produce estimates his loss at £1000. The rai'way line at Spring Creek is severely damaged, and the permanent way washed out for a distance of 100 yards. The damage done to the roads and bribes throughout the province is enormous. ■ Tho Blenheim-Kaikoura road is impassable, and the approaches to the Ure bridge washed away. It is reported that the Flaxboume bridge has gone, and two spans of the Clarence Bridge and two cylinders have been carried away.