The Hawkes Bay Floods

Southland Times, Issue 13737, 26 April 1897, Page 2

The Hawkes Bay Floods

THE DESOLATION. The following interesting account of a visit to part of the flooded district waa furnished to the H.B. Herald :— A party of three drove out in the direction of Korokipo. Along the road to Taradale the paddocks were all heavily covered with silt, fences were down, &c. ; but it was not until Taradale was passed that any idea of the enormous quantity of water, and ths swiftness with which it flowed,was ob'ained. Those who know Mr Henry William’s beautiful Ashridge property know that even the lower paddocks were a great height above the ordinary level of the river. In fact no other flood has ever reached there. But now the plantation paddock is deeply covered with silt, and the long palisade fence is washed entirely away in places, and tho rest is lying flat and broken under piles of debris. Au the road near Mr Shirley s was reached there were signs on every side of the violence and grsat depth of the torrent, but a full realisation was reserved until the party reached the road at the base of the hill. Here at every yard dead horses, cows, sheep and pigs were passed. The paddocks on the low aide were feet deep in silt, not a green thing being in sight except trees. Fences were down, gates broken, and culverts, which had been swept from above, were met with here and there. On the side of the hill the debrin lying showed the depth of the flood waters. This was several feet above the heads of thene in the trap, and the road is several feet above the paddacks on the other side; so theie could not have been much less than 20ft. of water there. A little further on a cottage standing on its roof was passed. Then came the crowning surprise of the day at Mr Hamilton Smith’s house. First came in sight what was left of the beautiful garden. The live fences were flat, and the whole place was covered with deep silt, only a mound of muddy leaves here and there telling where a tall shrub stood. Bub at the back of the house the scene was more impressive still, There trees, logs, and debris of all kinds stood in enormous piles 10ft. high. Anxious to learn the experience of the inmates, the party descended and made their way to the back door, the pile of debris giving dry footing. The door stood ajar, and the party entered. Though six

■ rh w-i I. ... i . !. d»ya had elapsed the floor wm six inohea deep in liqtrid mud. and the furniture wu lying in disorder all covered with mud. All the lower rooms were in the Mme plight. . The furniture, utterly rained, was piled in heaps by the water, and the piano stood on one end in the hall, whither it bad floated from the drawing-room. The water has left a dear mark on the wall paper, and it was seen that about 6ft. of. water had been in the house, which itself stood about sft. from the ground, - which in its turn is considerably higher than the surrounding paddocks. Had there not been an upper story the inmates must have perished. As it is they evidently . left as soon as they could escape, not even troubling to take with them the clothing hanging on the walls. Returning to the yard a building was soon upended, and against another the silt was piled almost to the roof. Climbing up the largest heap of debris a concrete floor was seen, and the bricks of a fallen chimney. No doubt the upended building stood there. The orchard was also seen from there,or what had been an orchard, the-trees all lying flat in the silt. On the very top of another large .heap of debris lay

the body of a cow. Coming along on horseback was a son of Mr Kitto, who has a large farm further up the road. In answer to inquiries he said that on the day of the flood he left . the Fetane farm for Korokipo,and got there just in time to get his father out of the house by means of a boat. But for his opportune arrival they must have been drowned. Two of his brothers, anticipating a flood, were out on the farm, intending to collect and drive off the stock, but the water came down so suddenly that they had to take refuge on one of a number of stacks, their horses swimming to higher ground, but the dogs ware drowned. Imagine their feelings when they saw one stack disappear in the raging waters and then another, until the ; one on which they stood was the only one left, Happily the boat then made its appearance and they were saved. Several of ' the farm buildings were washed clean away. Mr Kitto was, however, on the whole fortunate. All the calves and some sheep were drowned, and he at first thought he had lost a number of cows, but they were all ultimately found on high ground, some of them having swum over two miles. Mr Kitto added that in one of his paddocks there was a strange horse lying dead with the saddle and bridle on it. The Ngaruroro washed through the breach down the Korokipo valley, and joined the Tutaekuri just above Radcliffe, breaking the embankment to a length of eighteen chains, and rushed through Taradale and over the plain to Napier. On reaching Taradale, enquiries elicited the fact that the Meanee road was practicable, though still so deep in mud and water that the horse would have to walk most of the way. However, that way was chosen. It proved a depressing drive. On both sides of the road what had been only a

week before smiling paddocks, market gardens and fields of maize and potatoes, presented the appearance of a sandy beach from which the tide had just receded, leaving extensive pools here and there. Only the trees and a dilapidated fence here and thAre broke the illusion. At tho Convent School the gardens had disappeared under the all-prevailing deposit, and the marks on the walls showed that the water had been several feeo in the house. Jt was only on Wednesday that a relief party could get to the house with provisions. There had been ISin. of water in the church, and the fathers of the Mission have to deplore there beautiful grounds utterly wrecked, and their trim trellises of vines showing up white and ghastly with dried mud above the silt. The same dreary waste was seen all the way to the Shamrock, with the exception of the Meanee public school and master’s residence and the Plumpton Part Hotel, which were oases in the desert. At the Shamrock a turn was made for the wash out at Waitangi. Words cannot convey any description of the havoc wrought there. The sea runs up through a large gap many chains wide, where formerly were a high railway embankment, a road, green paddocks, and buildings, from one of which the unfortunate Mr Broadbent was washed to sea. The artesian wells now stand gaunt and high pouring their water into the sea. • The whole face of the country there has been so totally changed that only the remains of Mr Broadbent’s fellmongery stand as a land mark to enable even those well acquainted with the locality to locate where they stand. Gangs of men are busily at work in making a temporary deviation of the railway line, but it will be long before it is restored to its former condition, and probably a long bridge will have to be built at the washout. The party returned to town profoundly impressed, and feeling that only the pen of a Zola could convey even a faint idea of what they saw. .