TIMARU DISTRICT.—LOSS OF LIFE.

Otago Witness, Issue 846, 15 February 1868, Page 5

TIMARU DISTRICT.— LOSS OF LIFE.

The floods that swept over Levels plains during the late storm have been unexampled since the first settlement of the southern district, and have not only done a vast^amount of damage to farmsteads and crops, but we are sorry to report, have been attended with great loss of life. The flood of last spring was looked upon as a very heavy one, bub it was nothing to the one which rushed over the plains from above Parr's mill, near the Point, to the sea, on Monday night and Tuesday morning. The mill was erected ash ort time ago near the banks of the Opihi river, and not far from the Point accommodation house, which is distant from it about two miles. The mill was owned by two brothers, James and William Parr, who have lately resided in a weatherboard house, close to the mill. In the same house with them there lived a man, who, we believe, was their overseer. At a short distance from the Parrs' house there stood another house, in which. resided a man named Salter, his wife, and family of four children. Between 10 I and 11 o'clock on Monday night Salter observed water on the floor of his house, and that it was rapidly rising. He ran over to the Parrs, and found them in bed. He told them that water was then from a foot to eighteen inches deep in their house, and warned them of the danger of remaining inside. They replied they had known higher floods than that was, and told Salter there was no real risk, and advised him to go back to bed. Not long after Salter had regained his house, the water suddenly rose, and with a fearful rush swept clean away both houses. The poor man saw his wife and children in the roaring torrent, but was powerless to save them. Salter clung to a portion of the debris of his house, a"nd was cai-ried some distance along with the flood, and was picked off yesterday morning by a horseman who managed to reach him after the water had greatly subsided. We are glad to hear that the Parrs were saved, having just had time to jump from their tailing house with nothing on but their shirts and trousers, and seize on a portion of the wood work of the house. The same flood that caused such terrible havoc as above described occasioned considerable destruction of property to buildings and farms lower down. At Gaffney's and the neighbouring farms crops were destroyed, fences washed away, and in one or Wo instances we hear of buildings being seriously damaged. All the lower parts of the houses in that locality were under water during Monday night at about 11 p.m., and the inhabitants had to leave their dwellings and seek security from the water on a raised portion of the high road, it alone affording dry standing ground. [ Lower down the plain, and nearer the

«sea,»Y6Xft gieatdfiv^i^dion-was-caxiaed-byr , "tfye floojcL, if portion 'of iffier. fencing. l^.D^^wal^e^ away." 1 'Mr l^cholsojn,Messrs'Rhodes's manager,, had to vacate iia house on Monday iiight,; and- himself and family- take refuge on the roof. , t \ scene [at 'SaHfwater, was one of a most painful character. ■ ■ The loss to landed property is not so great as in anany other parts of the district,, but a ,3nost pitiable view was presented by the -carcases of drowned sheep lying about in all directions. Pigs and poultry were drowned and fences washed away. But all .this was nothing compared with the. most -, melancholy sight of some 1200 dead, sheep lying ■on the main road and in the -flax adjoining, immediately to • the . strath of Mr Driller's house. Mr Bristol had only two or three days before turned out about - 3,300 ahorh hoggets and wethers — fine fat sheep, the pick of the floek — on to his country running between the main road and the sea. The sheep,' during the fury of the gale, must have sought shelter in the flax on the low lying piece of land adjoining the Otipna Creek^ and were soon hemmed in by water. Yesterday morning

they were found in mobs of fifty and a hundred with their heads in the .flax, having apparently died in the struggle to Iceep above water. Many of the mob escaped hy swimming across the main road and over the top wire of the fence on to the high ground, adjoining. Mr Bristol estimates his loss at present from 1200 to 1500, and we are afraid that that estimate is, if anything, under the actual loss.