NORTHERN FLOODS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 14 July 1925, Page 9

NORTHERN FLOODS

HOW ONE WOMAN FARED IdOVINGr Ft'ANOITAIfd STORY

LAUGHTER AKIN TO TEAMS'

The trials and tribulation'-, of the woman in the home during the Rangitaiki floods are graphically described by one housewife in a letter written while the water still surrounded her home.

In forwarding the letter to the Herald her friend remarks: —“You can see what a shocking, visitation has come to this district. Most of us settlers —1 have now thrown the towel in—have spent years of hard work here and 1 can assure you it is going to finish hundreds of once fairly well-to-do farmers.” The letter which was enclosed proved to bp a very human document which painted a remarkably vivid and life-like picture of the llocd ns it- appeared to those, most affected. The writer is a woman and the manner in which fho women of the Hooded districts attempt'd t» put a brave face on their trials and tribulations is well illustrated.

HOUSEHOLD STORES SHORT

Her letter describes how, on the first Thursday, when the water began to rise, it was thought it would come no higher than on previous occasions. But the inundation continued to rise and there was no sleep for the family on the Thursday night. On the Friday the water poured across the law'll until the house was awash and the tops of the fences covered. Soon it- was three inches deep in the wash-house and outer rooms. As it had been intended to call for stores on the Thursday there was no bread, no meat, no potatoes and even no firewood in the house.

T have had to bake scones and cook ham and pea soup until I am -sick of the sight of ham,” the writer says. ".Mv husband managed to kill two fowls —- both laying, of course- —but, we could not run down the one wo wanted. So wo have tightened in our belts' —two meals a day. We would not. mind for ourselves, but the poor cattle have ‘roosted on the 'sandhill since Thursday without, feed.” (The letter was written on the following Tuesday). DROVING CATTLE FROM CANOE

The difficulties in the way of moving cattle to more comfortable quarters are illustrated by a few brief sentences which read: "A canoe came across alt the paddocks right up to the door to help move the cattle across the river. They tried all the afternoon and the brutes would not budge. So they are bringing a crowd of men tomorrow to shift them across the sandhills. I believe the high land is like a- fair. Everyone who could get their cattle across look them there.”

“I have all the floor coverings up,” runs another paragraph, “ready for emergencies, but so far we are safe.” A note of despair finds its way into the next few lines-: ”1 wish I were a man ! I have been at all sorts of jobs,but I cannot lift. lam bare footed all day. And then I cannot sleep or eat.”

PUTTfNG THE BEST FACE ON IT

“It would give a sort of Robinson Crusoe, feeling,” the writer says later,

“if it were not for the. dreadful loss it will mean to all around us.” She then tells of a telegram which had to be delivered in a rather novel manner. It was telephoned from the post office to a nearby store and the message was enclosed in a tin in company with a loaf of bread, and hauled across the flood with a fishing lire. Travellers by road in the flooded areas had to cover parts of their journey in a boat, which was propelled by one man rowing, one pushing behind and one pulling on front, while the luggage followed behind in a dray. The concluding paragraph of the letter is perhaps the most human of all. After the experiences described it is not surprising that the writer is carried away a little by her feelings. She remarks that when the floods go down the farm will be covered in silt- which, while spoiling the grass for the time, will Liter act as manure.

Then father unexpectedly she adds the following:—“Oh, dash the farm ! I could write and write—but- I am a. wee bit down-hearted, although I am laughing and swearing like a trooper—anything to buck them up. I slipped on the slimy stuff to-day and came down such a cropper ! But I looked such a wreck—greasy and wet—that my husband fairly had a fit so T had to laugh. But my back was sore and I was near to ciying— face alt mud splashes and hair bedraggled. All my rough corners are -getting bumped all right.”

WHAT A PTCNTG! There is another briefer letter from a different- district which tells a somewhat similar tale in fewer words. ‘At present,’ it say, “the cattle are perched on top of the sandhills by the house. We are going to try to shift- them to-morrow—-make them swim the river. The main mad by our place is still over four feet under water and the farm is like one beautiful lake. Some parts are six feet deep. Some of tfie old settlers round about say that it will take four to five .veeks for the water to get away. It is sflill under the house. What a picnic !” Personal experiences such a® these bring home the trials endured by the farmers and their families in the Hooded areas. Is it surprising that some of them feel inclined to throw up the sponge?