WESTPORT'S HISTORY BEING HOLD AT JUBILEE

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 453, 5 January 1934, Page 3

WESTPORT'S HISTORY BEING HOLD AT JUBILEE

HOTEL THAT WENT TO SEA WITH LAMPS BURNING

How a tidal wave and river deviation unmade Westport, how a hotel went to sea with all its lamps trimmed and burning, and how the Westport people rebuilt the town, in preparation for the 1929 earthquake, is bsing re-told in connection with Westport's jubilee. The original Westport was "properly planned and laid out, the streets running conveniently in squares, like a great draughtboard. The streets were named after great statesmen of that day—Palmerston, Disraeli, Balfour, Salisbury, Bright, Cobden and Brougham. "The old township was situated on the flat at the north of the town, but it now rests many fathoms under the sea, following a catastrophe that brought financial . ruin to many. One fine clay, persons looking out from the old town, saw the sea and the sky apparently meeting and moving towards the land. It was a huge tidal wave, many feet high, which struck the shore and moved up the river. It then receded, leaving the sea beach uncovered for a long distance seaward, but the next tide came in and flooded buildings all along the river. Suddenly the river changed its outlet and carried away two wharves, the wharf stores, the slaughter yards a mile below the town, and then a public cemetery. The river continued to bore to the north, and almost the entire front street of houses was swept down the stream into the sea. Many of the buildings remaining on the site after the flood were taken down and shifted to the new town. "The tidal wave started an era of trouble for those still left on the old site, for a great fire swept through the business, portions of the town and practically razed every shop in four streets. "In the following year, 1871, most of the township was washed out to sea

through the river breaking into the .straight course which it now follows. .It had rained for three weeks' and the Buller was carrying a tremendous volume of water. Property and buildings were soon uncbrmined by the torrent and washed out over the bar. At three o'clock on the morning of the flood the National Hotel was washed from its foundations and slipped bodily into the river with all lights burning, and floated out to sea. Until a late hour on the previous night the prospects of the river encroaching so far as the hotel were so remote that parties occupied the rooms playing cards. Many of the remaining public buildings, including the Post Office, were shifted to the site of the present town. With the true spirit of the pioneers the people of Westport set to and rebuilt their homes. The river now runs over the site of the old cemetery. "In recent times there have been at least two events which the present inhabitants of the town will not readily forget. In 1926 occurred the biggest flood since the disastrous washout of the early days. The river overflowed its banks and flooded portions of the township, but little real damage was done. "Then, in 1929, came the Murphison earthquake, which shook the town to its foundations and wrecked many of the most important buildings. Every brick chimney was shaken down by a series of terrible tremors, and the fine Post Office wa: so badly damaged that it had later to be demolished and to be replaced by the present up-to-date building. Even this disaster was overcome with characteristic fortitude, and now nothing remains in Westport as evidence of the worst earthquake in the history of the South Island.