HAWKES BAY FLOODS

West Coast Times, Issue 10552, 24 April 1897, Page 4

HAWKES BAY FLOODS

In ita description of the great calamity which has overtaken the Hawkes Bay people the Haw ices Bay Herald commences as follows :—: — The story of a most disastrous flood has to be told. Within the last eight or nine years floods have been of regular occurj reuce in Hawke's Bay, which for a time have crippled industry aud thoroughly disheartened sf ttler*. The latter have no sooner had an opportunity of recovering from one flood than they are visited by another. But however much the settlers, that is, of course, tho«e occupying lands within the reach of flood waters, have beer able to cope with these difficulties in the past, we venture to say that .none were prepared for the terrible calamity which occurred on Fri lay night and Saturday morning, bringing ruin everywhere in its train, submcgitK lands rich in crops, drowning stock in all directions, floodiug the well-furnished homes of settlers, washing away bridges, and causing such havoc generally that as the sad condition of affairs is view 3d it is really impossible to give an adequate idea of the extent o' the damage. The outlook is gloomy, for it, will take months ere much of the damage can be repaired, aud the thousands of pounds that it will take to make good what ha~ been destroyed will be a heavy drain on Hawke's Bay fora long time to come. On Thursday afternoon news was received that very .heavy and continuous rain was falling in the bush districts, and this soon extended to Napier. On Thursday night the rain which was to cause all the damage set in. The Goou Friday of the year 1397 will be recollected by everybody in the district as one of the most wretched it is possible i ot mortal to experipnee. From the earliest hour that day blinding rain fell accompanied by a howling gale which fairly lashed and pelted against the roofs with a force that gave rise to sad misgivings as to how people in the flats would fare. There was no lull and all day the rain continued until it seemed at last, when a break did come in the night, that the very heavens had expended themselves. Those living on- the hills heard aloud rumbling noine. It seemed like thunder, but iv reality it was tne flood waters breaking; the river banks and rushing across the lagoon finding an out'et in the streets of Napier, and nto the houses of residents, extending from the Whi^e-road O n the lagoon side through Munroe-street, Bower-street, Station -street, Wellesley-road, Daltonstreet, Tennyson-street, Emerson-street, Clive-square, right down to Carlyle-sfcreet all of the houses in which were standing in several feet of water. Thyp follows particulars of the catastrophe so far as they were ascertainable on the Sunday night, April 18th, and which have already been supplemented by the tolegrams we have published from time to time. In an article pointing out the necessity fo- river protection our contemporary s'aya ; — If any set lors in the plains near Napier had reason to think themseiveftaafa those at Tarradalu had. Theyihave* no doubt, io some extent suffered through the default of fchttir neighbours. But that should np.t prevent them now joining with those neighbours in taking concerted acj tion to protect the whole delta. There were too 11. any in .Napier who failed to see why the town should assist. The risk that the paters of the Tutaekuri would burst through the beach ' near Waltangi and leavoa fever-breeding swamp instead of a flowing river round toe boundary of the town did not apparently appeal to them. Still more remote, no doubt, seemed the chance of the Ngaruroro joining the Waitangi and bursting through' the railway line, meeting the waters of the Tutaekuri, and flooding the flat portion of the town at very serious risk of life and th« destruction of much property. Perhaps their experience of Friday night will show them that engineers are not mere faddists, whose theories are to treated with contempt. It is perfectly safe to assert that at the expenditure of onetwentieth of the money represented by property destroyed in that one night both town and country could have been efficiently protected from tho river waters. Lew-lying country must always colleot more or lesa surf ace water in heavy rains. But that collects gradually, it has no current, it leaves no thick slime over everything, and stock can always be got to higher land without danger orloss. It is the riyer watery rushing with irresistible force, and rising with almost inconceivable rapidity, we have to dread. We are told (that at the Shamrock the water rose four feet in ten minutes, Allowing for possible exaggeration, it undoubtedly rose so rapidly that to pave stock was an impossibility, and hnman life was seriously endangered. "W& have no guarrantee.

tfjai . l.c same experience may not over- 1 take us next month, or even next week. Nay, if we continue In the present haphazard faahionjwe ahall inevitably have worse to face. Every year ,the beds of the rivers we rising, and becoming more and more obstructed by willows, especially towards the mouths. And it is to keeping the mouths open that we must look for safety. If there is not ample escape for the water no system of embankments will save us. We should, indeed, be living in a fool's paradise, and when the inexi table break in the banks occurred wg should be overwhelmed by such a rush of water? that the destruction wrought would be far greater than that of Friday eight. If ever there was an instance -where united action meant wisdom and diaunioti • f -tlly, we have it presented in the river problem of the Ahuriri Plains. But the 4..8.C. of the whole I matter is, that -whatever else is done the mouths of the rivers must be ample to carry off the heaviest possible rainfall.