FLOODS AT HAWKE'S BAY.

Opunake Times, Volume VI, Issue 274, 23 April 1897, Page 2

FLOODS AT HAWKE'S BAY.

A TOWNSHIP UNDER WATER. SERIOUS LOSS OF LIFE. Terrible floods occurred in the Hawke's Bay district, the township of Clive, seven miles south of Napier, was almost inundated, in some places only the house tops being visible above the water.

A later telegram stated that as a result of the heavy rain the Ngararoro river bursts its banks. Almost all the low lying country is a sheet of water. Eleven and a half inches of rain fell in 24 hours. Clive, Meanee, Tomoana, Havelock, Hastings, PakiPaki, Te Ante, Wairoa, and Fernhill suffered more or less. In some instances houses were washed to sea. At Omahu the natives left the pah. Subsequently the whares were washed away. Only tops of the houses were visible. Some parts of Clive, Takapau, and Waipawa suffered severely, while the loss of sheep is enormous and damage to crops considerable. The railway bridges and permanentway were destroyed in all directions. Two boats went to rescue the Clive residents, but the boats were capsized and all drowned —Arthur McArtney (of the Albion Hotel), Sergeant O'Donovan, Constable Stevenson, Joseph Brierly, Fred Cassin, Prebble, Rose (commercial traveller), Hobden, Ansell, Chambers and Oborn.

A shepherd named Cunningham and two Maoris were also drowned. It is feared others are lost. Four bodies have been found on the beach at Palliser Bay. The bodies of McArtney and O'Donovan have been found near the mouth of the Waitangi river. Coaches left there for Napier on Monday morning ; also for Kaikoura to connect with the South train. Mails left for Wellington the same morning at six o'clock.

Several cases of drowning are reported, but nothing is definitely known. Another body, unidentified, has been found near the "Waitangi river. It is suppposed that the two missing boats were carried against the Waitangi bridge by the force of the' current and upset. There is little hope of anyone being left to tell the tale. A native named Kairatia was washed down the river for a mile, but succeeded in reaching a tree, where he remained for 24 hours, and was rescued almost dead. Two_ hundred loaves have been sent to Clive. Provisions are running short all through the district. The scow Rata is on the Petane beach. All hands landed sefely. It will be sis weeks before the railway traffic is restored. At Waitaugi the bridge repairs will cost from £20,000 to £30,000. Later news to hand states that there is great loss all the way from Kaikoura to Wairoa, and is most severely felt in Clyde and Farndon, where dozens of familes have been rendered homeless. The water is falling fast, but it is still in several of the houses, and it will be some days before the majority will be tenautable. Several houses at Ohifci were carried away and stranded. Twenty eight Maoris there had a narrow escape from drowning. Mr Douglas lost several racehorses. At most of the place* f he floor! is two feet higher than ever recorded. Further damage is expected from Breach, and the Government has been wired to take the necessary steps for protection at once. The Tutaekuri river broke through at Motea, doing immense damage, and carrying houses and stock away. The Standard estimates that 50,000 sheep were lost, besides a large number of other stock. Many farmers have lost everything, and big squatters suffered to the extent of several thousand pounds. Relief funds have been opened at Hastings and Napier. Several cases of narrow sscapes from drowning are reported. The death roll is 12. Although a I search was kept up along the beach I no bodies have been found. The rescue crews drowned included 7 married men with 22 children depending on them. At Pdverslie £2OO worth of wool ■ was buried in silt. 1 At Whakatu several people spent the night on the roofs of the houses. At Papakura a man aged ninety years of age had to take refuge on a roof. Two hundred and fifty passengers by Friday's express stuck at Hastings were enabled to get away on Saturday morning. It is expected it will be three months before goods traffic is resumed to Napier, two bridges having to be constructed. The damage on the south lines is expected to be completed in a few days. The acting-Premier wired that every assistance would be given to settlers. The repairs to the railway are likely to cost £BO,OOO. The New Zealand Herald's correspondent at Napier telegraphed on Sunday a most graphic description of the floods in that town.

With such rapidity, he wired, did the flood waters come that the people were taken perfectly by surprise. It seemed like a moment, and the whole of the flat part of the town was submerged." Articles of furniture were floating about the rooms of residents, and in many cases women and children mounted chairs placed on the tables, while the male members of the family sought means to rescue them from their perilous position. • Boats were brought into requisition with as little delay as possible, and soon all the sufferers were conveyed to places of safety. Manroo-street was a sea of water

and the rotunda in Clive Square stood like a sentinel alone surrounded by water on all sides.

People who know the situation of Napier will understand the position when it is said that a boat was rowed from Tennyson Street right through Clive Square and the little beach and into Carlyle Street. Here a glance at the .recreation ground showed the unpleasant fact that the cycling track was standing under 7ft of water, and there was sufficient depth to permit of a regatta being held in a place usually devoted to athletic sports, but the residents had only time to consider their own position.

The people at Clive were in a very grave situation. In the afternoon wires had been received by the chief traffic clerk at Napier that the river was rising very rapidly, and had overflowed in places, although it was hoped that auything like a serious flood, necessitating help from outside, would be averted. The traffic clerk communicated with the Mayor and police, suggesting that boats should be held in readiness, in case the worst; came to the worst. The Mayor, who up to this time had been rendering yeoman's service in seeing to the safety of the distressed people in town, sent down immediately to the harbor master, asking him to bring his crew with the lifeboat to town to proceed to Clive should they be wanted. Then came a message : "For God's sake send us some help ! " and that was the last telegraph news received from Clive. At this stage must now be recounted the position of affairs at Waitangi. A tremendous breach had been made in a spot a quarter of a mile south of the Shamrock Hotel. For miles around as far as the eye could see in all directions, there was a huge expanse of water. Through this breach, extending over a distance of seven chains, the waters had swept away in their maddened course the railway embankment, taking them with them at the same time a large number of telegraph poles. The river waters met the sea at the beach, and the thunderous roar of the breakers as they dashed through the ' opening was a scene not easily forgotten. Thus communication was entirely cut off both by rail and wire, and the only means of learning anything about the position of the Clive people was by despatching a boat. With the railway embankment washed away, as previously recorded, and with two spans of the Waitangi bridge gone, a train could only get as far as the beach with the pilot crew, whose boat was brought up on a trolly round the Hyderabad Road. The crew, which was in charge of Mr E. Forne, assistant pilot, comprised W. Lucas, J. Eddy, "Dub " Merritt, J. Knowles, J. G. Petersen, P. Franlin, and Captain Tonkin. The sight presented was pitiable in the extreme. The flood waters had done their worst.

Piloted by the same plucky fellow, the boat was taken as far as the bridge, on which stood men, women, and children huddled, with water to the right and left of them, and with no means of escape until rescued from their very dangerous position. The women, drenched to the skin, aud the crying of the children, and the surging of the waters as they dashdd under the bridge, was sad indeed. Three trips did the boat make conveying the sufferers to the Farndon Hotel, where they were*~looked after for the night. The attention of the boat's crew was then turned to the people at West Clive, and the boat having been carried over the bridge a start was made for the West Clive Hotel, where information was learned of the state of affairs in the district. After rowing about a mile they reached a house in which they found two women and four children perched on tables. They had been in this most uncomfortable position for several hours, until they were happily rescued about 2.30 a.m. on Saturday morning, and conveyed to the West Clive Hotel. Telegraph poles and wires, brushwood, dead fowls, ducks, &c, were floating about in all directious. In the Hastings distiicts the damage has been tremendous. On the Chesterhope estate, where fifteen thousand sheep were depastured, only a thousand could be mustered. At Tanner's fully a thousand have been lost, while around Omaha and Pokowai, the settlers lost heavily. The railway train services have necessarily been suspended, and it will be months before the permanent way can be restored. A rough estimate of the damage between here and Hastings places it at some £30,000. The men drowned leave families numbering twenty children, which, with the widows, are left almost unprovided for. Mr Eeilly, a milkman residing op posite the Riverside Fellmongery Works, lost the whole of his stock. Ten cows and eighteen yearlings were seen all huddled together, lying dead in a heap. Mr Midgley Rayston lost 230 sheep, the water, coming on him so quickly and with such a rush that he had very little time in which to remove what stock he did. At Nelson's, Mangatere, the men succeeded in saving all the stock, but Mr J. Thompson, of Clive, lost about 2000 sheep. Mr Baker aud his family, of Puketapu, had a very startling experience. Their house is situated in a gully, and an immense landslip fell with a terrific crash against the building. The family had time to take refuge in an old house from which they could see their dwelling gradually being drifted towards the river, down which it floated. They made their way oyer.

the hill into Taradale, where they were accommodated by Mr Kirkh-im.

AN APPEAL FOE ASSISTANCE. Mr J. B. Roy receiued tho following telegram ou Monday niyht : Mayor, New Plymouth,—Your immediate assistance is most earictly solicited to enable us in some measure to cope with the effects of the most disastrous flood which has ever visited Hawke's Bay. Hundreds of families have been rendered homeless by the destruction of their houses, some of which were bodily swept away, and the loss of property in cattle and all kinds of stock, besides miles of fencing and the ruin of their crops, has left them practically destitute, and the country desolate. The loss of life, too, I regret to say, has been large. Twelve persons have, it is now known, been drowned, and as most of them have left widows and children entirely without support, funds are urgently required to meet their most pressing necessities. Ten of those men nobly lost their lives in endeavoring to rescue their fellow settlers by means of boats, which have, there is now no doubt, been swept out to sea by the current. The loss altogether cannot be estimated at less than £BO,OOO to £IOO,OOO. Under these most distressing circumstances I feel compelled to appeal to the well-known generosity of my fel-low-colonists, and to ask them to give as their kindly co-operation in whatever steps may be taken to alleviate the misery and destitution which have fallen upon us.—G. H. Swan, Mayor, Napier.