THE FLOOD AT MOTUEKA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 37, 12 February 1877, Page 2

THE FLOOD AT MOTUEKA.

We have had an opportunity of conversing with a gentleman who has visited the districts which have suffered most severely from the. late floods, and he gives a most lamentable description of the country through which he travelled. The information he has conveyed to us we must put as briefly as possible, but sufficiently clearly to give some idea of the extent of the damage done. At Dovedale the destruction of property is described as something terrible, the principal damage being caused by landslips which were of frequent occurrence, in some cases smashing in houses from which the inmates narrowly escaped with their lives. Fields of corn are buried bene,ath huge masses of clay and rock, roads are torn up and converted into quicksands, and what the slips have spared has been destroyed by the flood. Mr O'Brien's hospitality has been largely drawn upon, for to his house have many who have been rendered homeless resorted for shelter. At the back of his house is a hill known as the " Green Hill " which was covered with bush, and here the largest of the landslips took place, neariy 300 acres having fallen with a tremendous crash. At a place known as Ram Valley a landslip nearly produced fatal results, a mass of earth falling on a house belonging to Mr Barnard, and completely burying it, Mrs Barnard having three of her ribs broken by the falling stones, one of her daughters also being seriously hurt. Justabove Ngatimoti Mr Cassidy's house was swept away and his land entirely spoilt, and he himself, a bedridden invalid, was only saved by being conveyed to his barn. Just about this spot the Motueka River ran through a narrow rocky gorge, but the rocks have been carried away, and the narrow gut is now a wide river bed. AtNgatimoti the only one who has not suffered is Mr Burrell, all the rest of the settlers having sustained very heavy losses in the shape either of land, live stock, or crops swept away, the heaviest sufferers of all being the Messrs Beatsou Erothers. All the roads in the district are utterly destroyed, and it is with very great difficulty that food has been conveyed to those who, deprived of their homes and means of subsistence, have suddenly found themselves' completely destitute. The thunder here on the Monday night is described as something terrific, and altogether unprecedented within the experience of those who heard it. Indeed, to the concussion occasioned by it acting upon the saturated hill sides are attributed the numerous landslips, for" the houses shook to such an extent as in many instances to frighten the inmates out of them. Pangatotara is a desolate wilderness, "scooped out," as our informant says. Five or six of the Grooby families have lost their all, two of them having seen their houses swept away. The schoolhouse has gone, but that does not matter, for there will be no children in the future to attend it, as everybody has cleared out, never again to return. AMr and Mrs Brereton and four children, and two Misses Bridges, newly arrived from England, were lodging in a house belonging to Mr Lloyd, and awoke on Tuesday morning to find their house flooded, and a roaring waste of water around them. From eight iv the morning until dusk they were endeavoring to cross a small paddock by travelling from stump to stump in; order to get to higher ground. Mr Lloyd came to their assistance with a horse and conveyed them to a whare where they are all now living. On his last trip, with Miss Bridges and one of the children with him, the horse fell and all were thrown off, and Miss Bridges narrowly escaped drowning, On the property formerly belonging to Colonel Wroughton, but now owned by Mr Holder, immense damage has been done. The house, it is true, is still standing, but only by a miracle, for the lower storey was entirely under water, and the rooms are now filled almost to the ceiling with mud. The land is completely covered with mud, sand, and fallen timber. Mr. Jennings, who occupies higher land than his neighbors, fortunately escaped with tbe loss only of a spring cart. On his greater elevation a number of live stock were landed and saved. Opposite his farm is the Pangatotara cemetery, which has been devastated, graves being washed away, headstones removed, and the whole of it covered with mud and other debris. On Mrs Heath's farm all. the lowlying land is rendered worthless, and two horses were drowned, five others saving themselves by getting on to an elevated spot, where, four feet deep in water, they stood out the flood. Near here was a bridge over a small creek, and over this, at the height of the flood, there was twenty feet of water. Mr Haycock's house, stockyard, and outbuildings were carried away, not a stick being left to show where they once stood/and Mr Spicer is»a similar loser- Taking a diagoral cut through a fine field of barley belonging to Mr S. Saxon, the torrent poured down towards the sea, spreading on its way over the whole village of Motueka, which from Myers' corner was one street of water, and in the neighborhood of Rumbold's and the Institute boats, canoes, aud rafts were floated over the hedges on their way to the assistance, of those who were in peril. Mr F. Greenwood is a heavy loser, owing principally to his farm being cut up in every direction, and in many places converted into a barren shinglebed. His live stock were all saved, but eighty tons of carrots were swept away, his stacks wetted, and the water washed into his house where it was never known to be before. He estimates that £1000 will not cover his loss. His neighbor, Mr Douglas, too, suffered severely, having lost nearly all he had. Y/hat is to be done for winter feed is not known, as a very large proportion of the hay and corn stacks are damaged if • not entirely spoiled-' Nearly every house in the village had the water in it from one tp ; fbuf feet deep, and layers of mud of divers thicknesses were left in all the lower ropi»s to

the destruction of carpets and furniture. " I have been a witness," says our informant, 'to a flood in China, where 30,000 lives were lost, but in appearance it was not nearly so terriffic as that which I saw iv Motueka on Tuesday last between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. when it began to subside."