MURCHISON ADVENTURES

Feilding Star, Volume 7, Issue 2243, 26 June 1929, Page 5

MURCHISON ADVENTURES

BEBNAItD TEAGUE

CONTINUES TUB' NARRATIVE' \ Mr Bernard Teague lias sent an-' oilier interesting letter to his parents in Feilding from Murchison. He, writes: — To continue my narrative, after, spending the first night, as described,; my first trip on Tuesday was rppnd: tho various camps to se e all were; passably well. At a meeting of men at 9 a.m. an Emergency Committee was elected, and then about 40 of us went with: picks and shovels to clear the road to Nelson. We went; Ivy car and worked like nigger s until a road of sorls was through. Then hack to town ana that afternoon over 160 refugees got away 1o Nelson. Next; day about 120 went, and altogether now there are oyer 400 in Nelson and very few left here. A party of a dozen left; here at daybreak tills morning to the assistance of settlers who ar e cut, off, and they expect to arrive hack with four families and one or two on stretchers (old people) on Sunday afternoon at ihe earnest.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night I pul in in a two-roomed shack, two miles away, with other men. However. I think the worst Is over now, and so tonight I am going to steep in my own bach,' and I suppose i am the only persop in Murchison sieeplng’ alone tonight. It seems a Idf weird. The Committee have asked that people keep in groups. f ' Two small shakes liaye occurred just while T have written from the top of Ihis page to here. A huge dam formed two miles up th e river h.v the slip which wiped out the Buscii family has eauserl a lot of anxiety, as there is now a lalff? of nearly 200 acres. It was thought that this may break suddenly but this tnorniiig It was noticed flowing slowly over th 0 slip, which is a mile or more wide and three-quarters of a mile long. (Another small ’quake). So now this is good news, for had the darn burst suddenjy nothing could have saved the township from utter obliteration. Many dams have been formed In a similar way, hut this is the biggest and is on the Mata kit aki river—a river about twice or thrice the size of the (irona—which Joins the Duller at Murchison. Thursday T and another man went to the assistance of some settlers who had been cut off and of whom there was no news. Leaving at daybreak we crossed tlie Bullcr six miles away by rowboat, and then walked about four miles over fair country, fording crocks and crossing muddy slips half a mile long. We found the'people air well. Two families in a tumbledown old house on •high ground—nine people In all. These people got through to Murchison this morning and by dinner time were a)] on their way to Kelson Today (Friday) I spent mostly at the main camp here, helping with the erection .of a new cookhouse, tents, etc. ’fills evening 00 tents and a. marqjice arrived from the •Wellington Defence Department, and When (lie residents opine hack these will be used for" those whose houses are knocked about. (A fair shake here). To-morrow I shall mostly likely go to retrieve my hike, which I abandoned last Monday.