THE LATE RAINFALL.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3318, 20 November 1883, Page 2

THE LATE RAINFALL.

The weather, after all the damage it has caused, does not yet appear to have settled. In addition to what has occurred near home considerable damage has been done in other localities as the following telegrams show : Auckland, Nov. 19. Excessive rains have caused a heavy landslip of 40 tons of earth on the Waikato railway, near Wangareata. Wellington, Nov. 19. The weather is dull and threatening. It has been raining the greater part of to-day. Blenheim, Nov. 19. Heavy rains have fallen for the past week. There are no floods. Dunedin, Nov. 19. A strong south-wester has now sot in, accompanied by rain. The Taieri Plain is reported to have been flooded to-day, but no particulars arc to band. Later. All accounts of the flood speak of the waters as having risen with unexampled rapidity. An officer of the Education Department who was proceeding to Naseby, via Palmerston, on Saturday, informs the “Star ” that lie never witnessed such a remarkable rise of water since he has been in the country as he saw at Flag Swamp on Saturday afternoon. But for the warning of a farmer, he thinks he must have met with a very serious accident in his anxiety to make Palmerston that night. On reaching the approaches to the Pleasant Creek bridge he found it impossible to proceed, and so dangerous was his position then that he was compelled to get out of his buggy and gropo his way in order to turn his horse, the water being up to his armpits. Returning to Flag Swamp, after an absence of barely half an hour, the water was fully three feet over the road, and the local schoolmaster might have been seen, with the water up to his chest, gathering his goods and chattels into the schoolhouse with a hay rake. The residents of Flag Swamp do not recollect such a severe flood. The waters everywhere appear to have subsided almost as rapidly as they rose. The suburban Borough of Maori Hill will probably have an expenditure of £4OO entered on it by the floods, and that of North-East Valley of £3OO. The rainfall at Palmerston in twelve hours was 2.51 inches. The floods on the Taieri Plain are not severe, but some damage has been done on the low-lying portions of the Plains, and portions of some district roads have been washed away. The weather continues cold and showery.

A correspondent from Waimato writes: —Three and a-half inches is certainly a pretty heavy rainfall for a single day, yet this was the record taken at the County office of the rain that fell in this district on Saturday last. As might have been expected, the damage done is considerable, though not so large as was to be feared, owing to the comparatively short duration of the downpour. The rain ceased to fall on Saturday night, and by the next morning, the greater part of the water had found its way to the sea. In the town of Waimate, while the storm lusted, the drains and culverts were quite inadequate to the ’ task of carrying oif the water, which censequently flooded the streets in all directions, and found its way into one or two hotel cellars. This unpleasant state of affairs, however, lasted only as long as the rain fell. The surrounding country has suffered more severely. A considerable number of sheep and lambs have been drowned in all parts of the county, though the loss in this respect is not so heavy as might bo supposed. There is probably not a farmer but has suffered some injury to his waterways and fences, and the growing crops have of course not escaped. Some of these, however, were not sufficiently advanced to be very seriously damaged by a single day’s rain. Those on low-lying land were submerged for a short time, and in some cases hillside crops have been injured by the washing away of the soil. Roads, bridges, and culverts have also had to bear their share of the mischief inflicted. Hard'y a culvert on the main road between Waimate and Otaio has escaped injury, those in the immediate vicinity of the last-named river having been particulary unfortunate on account of the great body of water that rushed to the sea just there. The damage to the main and Waimate branch railways was uot serious, as communication was restored on Monday morning. The last train from Timaru to the South on Saturday night had to return after getting as far as the Makikihi. The Waimato Gorge appears to have been the scene of the most serious damage both to railways and road. Several gaps, 10ft and 12ft wide, have been made in the latter, while the Gorge Branch railway has come in for a terrible mauling. The approach to the bridge over the creek close to the town has been swept away, the ballasting has disappeared in several places, a good deal of injury has been done to the embankment on which the line is carried after it leaves the Gorge, and at the cutting near the Waihoa Forks bridge a landship has occurred. Active measures are being taken to ascertain the full extent of the damage, and to restore communication as soon os possible, but at present no one seems able to toll when the latter desirable object will be accomplished.

THE LOSJ OF LIFE AT PALMEKSTON. Wo extract the following from the Oamaru “ Mail” : wishing to get to Dunedin, engaged Mr W. Foster, of the Empire stables, to drive them in a buggy and pair. They left hero about seven o’clock, and got safely to Pleasant Valley—to a place whore the road 'is very narrow ; and there they must have got off the crown of the road, and over an embankment into some 14 or 16 feet of water. Mr William Sloan, his brother James, and a friend, were at tea, and hearing a shout, they ran out, and saw all the men struggling in the water, and the horses just disappearing. Mr Sloan at once rushed for a boat, and suececdcd in getting within an inch or two of one of the men, who just then sank to rise no more. Just at this moment he discovered another of the party—Mr Foster—under the water, and managed to grasp him by the hair, and, after considerable exertion, he got him ashore apparently lifeless ; but after resorting to the usual remedies in such cases for a considerable time, ho succeeded in bringing him round, although the shock received is a serious one. The rest of the men succeeded in crossing by dint of swimming and holding on to a fence, and Mr Sloan, who was on horseback, swam over to them and got them safely over to his father’s

bouse, where they were carefully attended to. The name of the poor fellow who was drowned was Allan Hobbs, by profession a horse trainer and groom, and his parents, I hear, reside at Timaru. Both horses were also drowned. Several persons well acquainted with the road most strongly endeavored to persuade Forster not to attempt going in the flooded state of the rivers. Another accident happened about one and a half miles lower down the same river, just below the Goodwood railway station. An employee of Mr Calcutt, named Charles Eddie, was going to the station, driving a single buggy and got over the bridge safely to a place where there is a dip in the road, and where the river, when in flood, runs very strong. Here the whole affair was washed down, and the buggy was seen by some parties at some distance off to capsize, and not a trace was afterwards seen of Eddie, the horse or the buggy. But yesterday the horse was found some distance down lying on one of the banks with the shafts of the buggy attached, and news has just been brought in that Eddie’s body has been recovered. Mr Foster has since died.