A BLACK CHRISTMAS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14191, 8 January 1917, Page 4

A BLACK CHRISTMAS.

REMARKAB'LE STORMS. N.S.W. COUNTRY DISTRICTS . SUFFER* HEAVIL Y. Christmas, 1916, will be long remembered as the darkest in the history of Slillthorpe' and district, says tlie -Sydnly Daily Telegraph. The scene of destruction upon which v Christmas morning broke saddened the hearts o* alii > The rary of the storm which broke over the district on the • previous < evening was fully revealed, both "in- the town and district, and ruin stared many in the face.' Never before has anything approaching siich a storm been experienced. 1 The beat on Sunday morning was most oppressive. About 3 p.m. stormf elouds gathe'red in the south and north-west—^ dense banks of black, illuminated every te*t; minutes by Vivid 'flashes of lightning,' the air becoming more oppressive and heavily laden with. dust. The sky presented a. weird, awesome appearand the clouds gathering j n force a<id travelling rapidly 'towards each other. -■■'-.. * 1 Suddeillyr-it seemed with a ,- terrific impkct^-the two • banks of cloud met directly overhead of the town, and -the fury 'of -the- storm descended. Rain deluged the whole district, and was accompanied by hail, which wrought havoc beyond conception. -..- The lumps of ice, Some, oval, others jagged lumps 'two inches square, cut and laslied everything within -reach: Windows AVero smashed* in' every -building in the town, roofs penetrated by-. the hail, and water and mud raced through houses and business places' as if oiie' vied with the other iri the flwfuh errand of destruction. Though the town suffered bonsid'eiv able damage; the liavoc wrought on the farms 'Cast h,- gjoom over' everything. They district, which the week 'before was covered with a glory of Avaving, ripe grain crops -five ffeet and six feet high, presents now a picture of desolation. ;Nota- j&raw stands within the area touched by the hailstorih—thousands ofv- acres " were threshed by tlie awful scourge',, and lay battered into the mud, bearing no yestige of resemblance to the crops of an hour previous*. : The season altogether had iJeen a most - trying ! one 'to -the) farmers; the unusually web' ■ sjn-irig ' mpi\ths : ; delayed the harvest, which in ordinary seasons 'is practically all cut 'by Christmas. This yeai ; ; however, the ' ground ■ was- ho Aret thrft reapers and horses bogged whenever^ an attempt 'was inade to commence Ciittinc',- and thus only a very nmall quantity has been gathered within the past fortnight, 'which was fine: Now the harvest -is over/' One ' aiid a-half hours' storm has in its fury reaped' the whola acreage; with, alas! the result that, for ; the unfortunate' farmers, the year's work stand's for nothing. Tlie orchard-owners; too, fared badly, and splendid orchards bf 'apples, pears, plums, and quinces,- which gave promise of a good reward to* the owners, stand to-day bereft of ov&y vestige of fruit and foliage, besides, in many cases, leaving the ' trees considerably damaged, the bark being stripped and. hacked by the force of the hailstones. i Various estimates of the damage havo been made, but it is quite impossible to give an exact total yet.- However, aU agree that it is quite over £150^000, and that is calculated on a moderate valuation of the crops only.- . The > damage done by the floods is also very seriousmiles of fencing have -been washed away and streets and roads damaged to such an extent that . several -hundreds -of pounds' will be required to repair them. The force andi density of the hailstorm can be gleaned from the fact thatpiany places were heaped when the ' storm abated l to a depth of four feet, and even yesterday, in the cellars of some: of the hotels, there Svere heaps ,of ice four feet deep still unmeltetly *'■'