The Evening Star. MONDAY, APRIL 23, 1923. THE FLOOD.

Evening Star, Issue 18257, 23 April 1923, Page 4

The Evening Star. MONDAY, APRIL 23, 1923. THE FLOOD.

Fiood is a disaster which is fortunately rare in Dunedin. This, the worst in the town’s experience, came with no more warning than Saturday’s news that heavy rains had inundated various parts of the North Island. They reached here the •ame evening, beginning gently, but gradually reaching a precipitation almost tropical, coupled with an insistence typical of these parts in ordinary wet weather. There. was no sudden and colossal phenomenon, such as the so-called cloud burst on the slopes of Mount Cargill on Christinas Day of 1811, which' brought swift

catastrophe to many residents of the Woodhaugh and North-east Valleys. That was Dunedin’s last experience of flood, but fortunately its effects were purely local, the cause being as entirely local as at was unprecedented. But yesterday's unpleasant and destructive experience was widespread. Those ■who kept on believing that, as there was no sudden onslaught by Nature, the storm-water disposal system would have time to cope with a long-continued demand on it were doomed to disappointment. From the hills which form the rampart round the town to tho southwest there poured cataracts of water which mocked at and mostly disregarded the Forbury storm-water aqueduct. Instead of being led into tho ocean at the second beach at St. Clair by this means, they tore tueir way by the shortest route—bringing devastation to any habitations that chanced to be on it—to tho flat, and accumulated there, driving tho residents of that thickly-populated area to whatever refuge they could find. There is not yet any comprehensive separate system of storm-water drainage for tho flat. As it was (and is) the task before the machinery at the pumping station was an impossible one, and the Flat has had an experience beside which any previous floods compare much as ordinary baptism does to total immersion. At the other end of the town the problem was of a different nature. When the Leith runs a torrent, as yesterday, it is ‘‘not at home” to that usually modest little would-be entrant, Lindsay's Creek. This tributary then hacks up and invades tho contiguous land, as many old residents of the North-east Valley know to their cost. No drainage system nor pumping station can be of use to them, for the harbor tides enter as a governing factor. But most unaccustomed invasion by water occurred also on this occasion more towards the heart of the town. The design of the drainage system was that, when occasion demanded, the storm-water frtfm the nearby hills should be led direct to tho harbor, being denied entrance to the main intercepting sewer. Apparently a great deal of water did enter the sewer instead of tho harbor. At any rate, the capacity of the sewer was overtaxed. There were floods in tho low-lying parts contiguous to George street, and the inundation of the Flat to the south was also accentuated and prolonged. To-day emergency measures were adopted to relieve tho pressure on the main intercepting sewer and the pumping station by discharging some of tho former’s contents into the head of tho harbor. Unless there is widespread misconception on one of the fundamental principles of our drainage scheme, this seems to savor of shutting the stable door after the steed has bolted. Meantime it is premature to say more on this aspect of the matter.

The most consolatory feature of the flood is tho spontaneity and whole-hcart-cclness of tho relief accorded the sufferers —most of them philosophic and sonic even cheerful in circumstances that would have made Mark Tapley's smile a rather strained one. There is a saying that none help the poor like the poor. It has ben proved onco again; but what also has again been proved in the value of the Rev'. Vincent King in an emergency. Something reminiscent of tho epidemic time was in full operation to-day. Free moals were obtainable by the homeless, through tho generosity of those better circumstanced in more ways than one. But there are many not well circumstanced financially who aro housing and feeding refugees, and some fairly continued and really needed help is being organised for those who have, as a matter of course, shouldered this additional burden.