FLOODED VALLEYS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23036, 13 May 1938, Page 10

FLOODED VALLEYS

VIEW FROM THE AIR TRANSFORMED FIELDS - i SWAMPS REPLACE FARMS SILT DISCOLOURS SEA •[by TELEGRArn— special reporier] GISBORNE, Thursday Some impression of the havoc which has been caused by floods throughout the country between Napier and Wai- .. roa could be t gained during a, trip from Napier, to Gisborne by an East Coast Airways machine. From a comfortable flying altitude, of course, one misses the details of the devastation, but even more disheartening than a close-up view of the houses buried in mud is the panorama of once fertile valleys transformed into scenes of desolation. The ill-fated Esk Valley is the first to strike 'the eye, with the machine just on her course after leaving the Napier aerodrome at ""Westshore. As the valley runs back from the sea one glimpses the roofs of houses and the tops of trees' just appearing from the river of silt by which they have been engulfed. Occasional Contrasts Conditions equally as bad rule all the way up the coast. For the most part ,it is wild country, with cliffs rising sheer from the foreshore and the land running back in serried ridges as far as the eye can see. Every few miles or so there are fairly broad valleys cutting thrbugh the hills. All have been centres of keen, farming activity, but to-day they are laid waste. Silt and mud have blotted out practically every trace of pasture. : Occasionally, from the air, one glimpses a little pocket valley so favoured by the configuration of the country that it has escaped the flood waters. The brilliant green fields and wisps of smoke'rising from the farm houses serve only tQ, intensify the feelings ; of ,tragedy : ■! aroused ; by 'other spectacles. j, y 1 . ; JApproaching Gisborne the traveller by aeroplane looks down, on the Mahia Peninsula. Floods on the low-lying isthmus' are so extensive that the; peninsula is almost an island. Further on are the Miiriwai Flats, normally a prosperous dairying! district, aqd riow > virtually a swamp. . \ ;- : ...The Same Story to .Tell „ . Farmers from all over the district,: from Napier north to Tokomaru Bay and beyond, 'have the ; game' \ story .cto tell—a story of ' miles and miles of fences:,either buried or else twisted beyond repair, of pastures covered with, silt and mud, and of ( absolutely ruined by the; sweeping_of the so\vn -land right l 'out'"to seal One? ; farmer even ; hazarded, the opinion that-the grass.,seed. whichhehad ,Jately. sown ; mignt possibly finish up ,on the - coast of South America. : The extent of the flooding can also be gauged by a study of the coastline. Looking out to sea from the speeding aeroplane, one notices the usual blue green colour, but in shore, where the waves break at the foot of cliffs, the silt-laden rivers and streams have coloured the sea ai muddy brown. APPEAL FOR RELIEF HAURAKI PLAINS DAMAGE [by telegraph- —OWN correspondent] ' THAMES, Thursday The Hauraki Plains West Drainage Board decided at a meeting to cooperate with the United Drainage Board in making representations to the i Government With a view to receiving relief in the area damaged by the . recent flooding. The help or Mr. 0. R. Petrie, M.P., and Mr. E. Coulter, M.P., will be sought. The area will be inspected by the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Scrapie,> to-morrow.. The Minister will receive .deputations at Patetonna and at Ngatea.