TERRIBLE DESTRUCTION OF LIFE AND PROPERTY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4571, 16 February 1893, Page 4

TERRIBLE DESTRUCTION OF LIFE AND PROPERTY.

Toowoomba, Fsb. 6. There is still no communication with Brisbane. The flood watera are slowly re- • ceding. It is reported that a family named Gillick, at Goodna, seven in number, are drowoed. About one hundred families are flooded out in the low parts of South and Eftßt Buhdaberg, and are sheltered in the churches, Ihe Exhibition Hall and the show ground. Five hundred Kanakas from Fairymead are quartered in the depot and on board the recruiter Lochiel. ' The river roae forty-three feet at Gayndah. Appalling devastation has taken place in Maryborough, where a bridge collapsed. Hundreds of houses have been washed away. Granville is submerged. The sohooner Marchionenn of Lome drifted two miles, and Captain Stages was drowned. At Ipswich the water 3 are receding steadily, disclosing terrible scenes of desolation. Houses and shops are canted and shifted in all directions, the streets are in a frightful mesa, and the stench therefrom is awful. The Governor arrived by trasn from Toowoomba at 1.10 p.m., but it was impossible to get a train from Ipswich towards Brisbane, so his Excellency is detained here. A meeting was held in the Council chambers this afternoon, and £676 cdd was subscribed in the room. Mr Jackson, father of the four who were drowned at 'Blackball, jußt out of Ipswich, arr.ved at Jpswiflh to-night, having been detained at jt being impoasible to pass with

I his train. Had it not been that he had his train aod used it to carry the people about Goodna and Wolston to higher ground many must have been drowned. The passengers by the Sydney mail train, which stuck up at Eedbank on Friday night, had to camp in the State school. They had a calf roasted, and ate it half cooked. Provisions were sent to them by boat this afternoon. There is no news yet from Brisbane, and it is feared that the suffering and lo»a there must be something tremendous. A man named Heenan, with, his sister, were carried away from Goodna in the midst of the stream in a small boat. It is feared that they mußt^e drowned. The Bore Hole .mine, at Blackstone, collapsed entirely. The Lindsay mine, at Bundamba, also collapsed. The water reached the top of the Catholic ohnrch, at Goodman Numbers of people from the south side of the line are camped on the hillside. Houses are floating in all directions. Wolston is entirely submerged. The people from there were brought near to Goodna by Mr Jackson's train, and are getting provisions from the lunatic asylum. It is surmised that the water extends in one sheet from Wolston to Brisbane.