IN CENTRAL OTAGO.

Otago Witness, Issue 1981, 11 February 1892, Page 18

IN CENTRAL OTAGO.

A gentleman who came into town last night from Kyeburn via Palmerston states that the rain began at Kyeburn on Saturday, and on the following day the river roso to a greater height than it has ever before been known to attain. At 5.30 p.m. the tide was fullest, and an hour later the bridge across it, with the approaches and embankments, were swept away. This served to relieve the river, which, however, continued very full till 12 o'clock. The rain at Kyebum censed at 12 o'clock on Monday. The coach which usually runs from Naseby to Middlemarch on Mondays could not be despatched on the regular date, nor was it deemed advisable to make a start yesterday. The telegraph wires were down, and as it was reported in Kyeburn that the Middlemarch railway line was blocked, and that the Taieri bridge was unsafe, it was decided to remain until telegraphic communication should be restored. Our informant came down by a hired conveyance, and according to his statement to our reporter, who was at Palmerston yesterday, the roads through Swiuburn, Pleasant Creek, Pigroot, Two Rivers, and the other places which were passed en route from Kyeburn, were in a very bad and unsafe state. The surfacemen were at work, however, and the roads will probably be repaired within a few days. The same authority states that the approaches to the Taieri bridge at Hamiltons have been washed away, rendering the traffic unsafe, that the bridge at Mr John Ramsay's, on the Kyeburn side of Hyde, has collapsed, and that Guffie and party's main sluicing claim at Naseby has been swept away. The whole of a farm on the banks of the Taieri river, between Kyeburn and Hyde, was observed to be under water, the crops being washed away. The shelter erected for Messrs Cobb and Go's coach horses at Kyeburn has been washed away, the paddock was half filled with shingle, and four of the firm's horses were in very great danger for six hours, until the water began to •übside.