DISASTROUS FLOODS IN HUNGARY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5993, 30 July 1887, Page 6

DISASTROUS FLOODS IN HUNGARY.

A great parb of Hungary is being devastated by floods. A correspondent, who telegraphed on the night of June 5, described the state of affairs in the Theiss district as follows : — The whole country here resembles a vast lake overtopped here and there by church towers, the roofs of farmhouses, and the crowns of trees. The inhabitants are everywhere being compelled to assist in strengthening the dykes, most of which were builfc after the disasters of 1879, but are generally of very defective construction. The towns depend for their protection mostly on the strong dams o£ the railways. Szegedin, being almost completely surrounded by such dams, will this time escape destruction. The town of Vasarhely is already under water. There are fierce fights every day between the inhabitants of certain neighbouring villages, the contending factions desiring to destroy or to save some embankment on which the safety or destruction of their respective homes depends. Numerous villages aro being washed away one after another, the farmhouses falling in and their barns and outbuildings being swept away. The herds of cattle are often only saved from the floods to perish of starvation through want of fodder.

The report of June G was :— The state of matters in the inundated districts of Hungary is every hour growing worse. The towns of Hod-Mezoe-Vasarhely and Mako in particular, no to mention numerous large villages, are every moment expecting to be swept away. The most strenuous efforts have been made to stop up the breach in the embankment of the River Theiss, near the village of Little Tisza, but had entirely failed. The stream rushing from the bed of the Theiss to the angle between the Theiss and Maros is 300 ft broad, and nearly 100 ft in depth. The roar of the waters can bo heard at a distance of twenty English inilea. While the TheißS is thus slowly subsiding, the level of the waters on the inundated territory is incessantly rising and spreading over a wider extent. The bed of the Theiss stands considerably higher than the level of the plains on either of its banks. The floods, therefore, cannot return to the river, and can only disappear by evaporation or by absorption into the soil. This process may take two years. In the meantime, the land cannot be cultivated, and the unfortunate inhabitants will be decimated by ague, typhus and starvation. Up to the present time the railway dams have resisted the force of the floods, though partly washed away at certain points. A large number of lives have been lost, and several entire herds of cattle drowned in the neighbourhood of Mako. That town, though partly submerged, is crowded with farmers, who have taken refuge there from the surrounding country, many of them having hud a narrow escape of their lives. The well-to-do inhabitants of the town have all deserted it. A few battalions of infantry and two companies of pioneers have been sent thither to assist in strengthening the neighbouring dykes and datua. The floods have now reached the Csanad County, where they cannot fail soon to inundate, 50,000 acres covered with wheat crofts. Csonfrad, 25 miles west of the Thy^a, is also now inundated, the waters there formin<* a lake covering 300 English square miles. Where on Monday last the prospect was one of boundless crops of wheat,

promising a most abundant harvest, there are now more than 50,000 families brought to the verge of ruin.

It was announced on June 8 that another sluice and dyke had given way near Porgany, and that the water was rapidly flooding that part of the surrounding country not yet inundated. Several canal dykes have ako given way, and the water is rising in great quantities in the direction of Mako and Csanad. The estates of the Bishop of Csanad are already under water, and a catastrophe at Mako, a town o£ 30,000 inhabitants, is imminent. All the inhabitants and numerous soldiers are employed in strengthening the dykes round the town ; but there, as at Vasarhely, the subterranean water has already inundated tho lower quarters of the town. Boats have been despatched from Pesth by railway to both towns. The situation is deplorable; for miles and miles where the green corn had delighted the eyes and hearts of the peasants there is now only a vast muddy lake, in which are floating beams, household furniture, and the dead bodies of household animals. Along the dykes pass processions o£ farmers and their families making their way to the towns. Some of them have rescued a cow or pig, but the aiost have escaped only with their lives.

The latest reports received up to June 0 were that the waters were spreading, as the streams from the Carpathian Mountains are swollen by continuous heavy rains. The inundation of three villages was reported ; but, as the inhabitants had evacuated their cottages, there was no loss of" life. About 55,000 acres of the finest wheat land in Hungary are now under water. The Pesth correspondent ol ! the Standard, writing on Wednesday, says : — This is the twentieth anniversary of the coronation of the Emperor Francis Joseph as King of Hungary, and hero in the Hungarian capital we are awaiting every moment the news that the towns of Mako and Vasarhely, not to mention numerous villages, have ceased to exist. This morning the floods had reached the so-called " cross dyke" only a few hundred feet from Mako. The town is situated in a hollow, and will therefore be destroyed the moment the dyke gives way. The villages o£ Foldeak and Tape and part of the village of Lele have been submerged, and the railway dam between Alfoy and Vasarhely cannot much longer hold out. Meanwhile both the Maros and the Theiss continue to fall. The Government Commissaries are not practical engineers, and are utterly helpless in face of the disaster. They are driving from one place to another, only causing confusion. The popular discontent is increasing; in fact, the Hungarian Administration, since the fall of the Deak Government, has been rotten to the core.