PITIFUL PICTURE

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 142, 17 June 1924, Page 6

PITIFUL PICTURE

FLOOD DAMAGE ON HAURAKI PLAINS

FARMERS1 SERIOUS LOSSES.

(»I TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL 10 TUB POST.)

AUCKLAND, This Pay. The flood damage on Hauraki Plains is very heavy. The most serious loss has taken place upon the farms where water lay so long that the grass roots have perished. Saddening sights can be seen near Ngatea and on the Awaiti Settlement in the Netherlon district. To one who saw theie lands in the summer, when herds of sleek cattle, incredibly large for the size of the paddocks, grazed knee deep in grass, the scene is one of the most melancholy anyone could imagine. Instead of luxuriant grass there is a dank, foul-smelling expanse of brown decay over which seagulls feed in thousands. The grass is dead, and will have to be resown when the land dries sufficiently. Paddocks of turnips m some cases are a complete loss; every root has rotted in the ground. A paddock of late turnips was inspected where there was hardly a sign of the crop. Hay stacks that had been surrounded by 3ft of water stood steaming in the waste. - It is thought that the hay from a foot or two above the water line will remain sound, but, even co, there is no siock to eat it. The herds, driven first to the hills, which bound the plains are now scattered from Tauranga to Te iiiuti, from Coromandel to the pumice country. A MEMORABLE' NIGHT. It was a memorable night when the alarm was given along the Ngatea road, it was the night after the Waihou had broken its stop-hanks and poured its waters through the country toward the ,?L J^ settler heard t!le break beow the Te Puke Bridge in the middle of the night. He wakened and.in strained silence listened. There could be only one explanation—only rushing water coujd make such a sound. Soon the country was roused, and what followed was repeated m the Ngatea' district. Telephones and galloping horsemen spread *a Sf™ tidings: "The river's through! LIKE AN ARMY AROUSING TO THE ALARM. It was a clear, still night, and a man who hves at. Ngatea township graphically tells wh!l t he heavd a^ss f aver It was like an army arousin*- to an ajai-m. From near at" hand to "the iar distance the barking, of dogs filled the night; the splash, splash, of the cattle over the paddocks that were awash followed, and then down the road came the cattle. Herd after herd, pressed forward by whip and- dogs, went thundering across the bridse. Hour alter how- the procession continued th lf,r?V otiH driven excepfc on to the road, the highest point that could the vo d n vls and tl' rke >'s als° fo»^ ngh v m the centre of the road for his Pgs to he ,n. They "dug in" immedi--ttZ'ir 7 fn5 ed t0 budse au iueh- The travelling herds parted and swarmed past along the Netherton-Turua road It was estimated that there were 2000 head of cattle, and nest day owners were moving among them pouring out ittle piles of chaff for them. Many herds were mixed. It is stated that If 50 cows one man put on the road he as so tar found only a dozen. . Some herds were driven to the ro U "h rr^j'l m the swamp, where tl !e re % s twimmediate danger, but in. some indicesthe water rose and the plight of the ant mals was worse then ever! " One man had a fine herd of 100 Jerseys on one of these blocks. l mt his warning came too l«t e , and wlten"' ™ ' xpwed to see the poor marooned;, ,rf stsrymg b r «te 5 h e wa , so ? not have a rifle to put a good iiunbrr of them out of their misery. Mmiv of th« cows driven off in the „s<fht were in foil milk and seeing that, there has been "o oppprtamtv of dryins thmn of ♦ he"