AUSTRALIAN FLOODS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2468, 23 February 1893, Page 1

AUSTRALIAN FLOODS.

Sydney, Feb. 20. The Hood yesterday almost reached the level of the preceding one. Heavy rain fell all Saturday, accompanied by a terrible easterly gale. Between eight and ten inches were recorded in 24 hours.

A large portion of the city and suburbs is again under water. Most of the business places in South Brisbane are submerged, and there is water in many houses on the north side. The town was in darkness at night. The defence force and police combined to preserve life and property. Telegraph communication is confined to a few stations.

The railway coal supply is almost exhausted. There is plenty on the south side of the river, but it is inaccessible.

Most of the stations between Brisbane and Maryborough report five to eleven inches of rain.

The merchants have mostly taken precautions against another flood, and their loss is not so heavy as before, but a large number of people who had made tl/eir houses habitable have again been driven out, and there will be much distress on this score.

Several cases of drowning are reported.

The gunboat Palumah and the other vessels which were stranded in the Botanical gardens a fortnight ago, were floated off by yesterday's flood and are now safely moored. Ipswich is again inundated, and the public buildings are crowded with refugees. The scenes of distress are most pitiable. The railway to Toowoomba is cashed away. The starving people at Goodua, near Brisbane, were relieved by a boatload of provisions sent from Ipswich. The flood at Toowoomba is reported to be now subsiding. A man named Cahill was swept away, and his skull was smashed by coming in contact with a bridge. Several large houses were washed down the stream against Saddler's Bridge at Ipswich. The Eclipse colliery is again inundated, Feb. 21.

The flood waters are slowly subsiding. The loss, compared with that of a fortnight ago, is comparatively email in Brisbane itself. The country between Ipswich and the city, however, is in a terrible condition. The railway is considerably damaged, and many small bridges are washed away. Sydney, Feb. 20.

It is anticipated that the bulk of the maize crop in the Clarence district is destroyed. The country for ten miles from Grafton is an unbroken sheet of water., No serious casualities are reported^

1 ¥9kitt. I The »,** &&$&% ** ****** «W» - - neighbouring dis- ! ; " - ilie maize crop is nearly ' " ~.yed. , Young sugar canes have suffered mucli damage. . . A cyclone demolished three houses in the Tweed district. London, Feb. 20. The Queensland relief fund has reached £2OOO.

According to the Sydney Daily Telegraph of the 11th itißt., the following were some of the retail prices of food in Bnsbance at that date :-Flour, £5 per sack of 2001 b ; sucrar, 4d to 6d per lb ; maize, 10a to JOs perbushtl; potatoes, in some places charged for at the rate or a penny each ; bakers, by common consent, were charging very little more than ordinary prices for bread. , „ .. t At a meeting of the Brisbane Keliet Committee at Onmaru on Monday it was sHted thi't. £222 was collected, with more list,, to c mo in. It was decided to cable £175 at once.