STUD FARM DAMAGED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22949, 29 January 1938, Page 12

STUD FARM DAMAGED

RACING STOCK SAVED FLOODS IN HAWKE'S BAY. MR. T. H. LOWRY'S MISFORTUNE [by telegraph—OWN correspondent] ■ HASTINGS, Friday ~ Damage to the Okawa station cause!* floods will necessitate Mr. T. H. Lowry sending Ms stud racing stock elsewhere owing to sand brought down by the Ohiwia, Stream having made the grazing paddocks useless for the time being. Wholesale damage was done to farm lands and buildings and and fences have suffered extensively.

Owing to telephone and road communication being damaged Okawa has been isolated since Tuesday. Mr. Lowry said that on Monday evening, when indications pointed to a flood, lie took steps to move the horses and cattle from low-lying areas, and the precaution proved to be a wise one. If this action had not been taken, the famous. Okawa Stud would, in all probability, have been lost to the Turf. With not a fence left standing and , with thousands of tons of dehris piled up at various points in the jfields, the 100 acres on which prized blood foals once frisked now present a sorry scene. Mr. Lowry says he hopes to get these paddocks sown again in the near future an'd see what can be done with them. During the height of the storm the Ohiwia Stream rose 10ft. in one hou? and a total of 18ft.

The Okawa Stud is famous as. the nursery of the great mare Desert Gold, winner of over £23,000 in stakes, and one of the finest performers the Dominion has produced. Many other good horses have been bred at Okawa. among them being Gascony. Nigger Minstrel, Gold Rod, Gold Trail, Grand Jury and Alienist. Mr. Lowry was the purchaser of two high-priced fillies at the National Sale of Thoroughbred Yearlings at Trentham last month, buying the Beau Pere —Drama filly for 1150 corneas ana the Beau Pere —Barbacan filly for luw guineas.