The Floods in North Otago.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XVII, Issue 5208, 15 February 1892, Page 4

The Floods in North Otago.

(By a Traveller.) The crops about Ngapara have suffered very little damage. It is not till reaching jj r 's that discoloration is observable, and that is nothing serious ; besides it was a little discolored before it was cut. Mr 's oats are a little dark. The result of the storm on the Tables is far from serious as compared to some other localities. Speaking generally, the ground has become so soft through the immense quantity of water absorbed that grain that may be ready cannot be led in, as the ground will not even cairy the reaper and binder and necessary team for working it, so that farmers and their men are compelled to be idle. About Island Cliff, the school teacher (Miss Reith) and several neighbors had to abandon their dwellings for a time. The footbridge below the school across the Awauioko is gone. Going up the Waitaki, at Duntroon I understand Mr Welsh's valuable orchard is seriously injured, if not destroyed, and a trreat deal of the low land on th.it the west—side of the river is covered with shingle. The railway bridge is broken down—to what extent I cannot say ; probably the centre piers have been undermined. I was told a few days ago by one of the men who helped to build it that the piers were not founded on the rock. Above the bridge the Maerewhenua has divided. A large stream on Tuesday was running between the cliffs and MrNiccol's homestead and along the road. and his family were thus between two raging streams and could not be rescued from "their place of refuge—the upper floor of their dwelling—up to Tuesday night. Following up the Waitaki, the Waikouri railway bridge is left severed from the line by the creek breaking through the embankment at one end ; the bridges across the Otekaike and Otiake streams are both partially destroyed ; the Kurow bridge across the Waitaki is washed away in part on the Sandhurst side, about thirty feet in length, and the road between the two bridges is very much injured. This bridge was built in a place that no one in his senses, one would think, would choose for a bridge site. I have it on good authority that the site was selected to suit the interests of certain landowners. Be that as it may t-here would be decided wisdom in building a good bridge on a site about a mile above the township not half the length of the present one, which could be securely built on rock formation at both ends. I have seen a splendid bridge in V ictoria on the lattice-work principle that would be very suitable, I think, both for the site and the purpose it is required to serve, one of its chief advantages beiug that it needs no central piece, and hence there would be no obstruction to the flow of the water. On some low places in this part of the district the stooks of grain are standing in the water. Further up, the footbridge across the Awakino is gone, and here Mr Sharp, the wool scourer, suffered some loss of wool and plant. Though the shed still stands at Wliare-Kuri, the bridge here is completely swept away. It is only a short span, but the gully is deep and lias almost perpendicular sides. Beyond this, I can give no information. The only bridge in the country further up is that which crosses the Otematata—a fine bridge—and it should stand, if no timber has come down with the flood. Returning to the Maerewhenua, the foot bridge below Livingstone has been swept away to a meeting place below Mr Mulvena's house and broken in two, and the greater part of the road by the river side fronting Mr Mulvena's property is washed away, and will be costly to replace, unless land be acquired to construct a road nearer the mill. The bridge at the ford on the Naseby track is also demolished. One important factor in the destruction of this and the bridge next below were logs which were washed down from the mountains. One of them stranded below Gabsuout farm, and was 3ft. in diameter. This coming down on such a raging torrent as the Maerewhenua was on Monday, must have struck the bridge with terrific force ; and here comes in again the question of the kind of bridge best adapted for such torrents. I think, whenever it is practicable, suspension or other kind, needing no pier in the stream, would, even if more costly to erect, be cheaper in the long run. The new LivingstoneNaseby road has suffered some damage—to what extent I am at present unable to say. Races, too, have suffered terribly, Mrs Frater and Mr M'Quade getting off with the least damage. The Pioneer is so seriously injured that I hear the Company are in doubt as to the wisdom of repairing it. The Mosquito race has 70 breaks—two of them 25 chains long, besides the river has made such encroachment that a secure site for another race cannot be obtained. The Maerewhenue race is, I am told, injured to an equal extent. Several dams also have burst, so that altogether the milling interest has been very seriously crippled. Messrs Holmes and Laird have lost a large paddock of a new and costly variety of wheat in stook, near the Maerewhenua schoolhouse, cliieflv by the bursting of a large dam in Bushey Creek. Mr Peter Taylor, lower, down the river, lost all the stooks from 20 acres of Tuscan wheat. Since writing the above, reliable information lias reached me that one end of the Otemetata bridge is gone ; further, that Mr J. C. Nichols and family were in a most precarious position for three days, and in constant fear of death, as the water had made a breach in the ground floor which was built of freestone —the first floor being a later addition and built of wood—the force of the water running through the house underneath, where they were confined, beiug such as to break up all the furniture in the lower rooms, including a valuable piano.