The Gale in Canterbury.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 351, 14 September 1889, Page 3

The Gale in Canterbury.

A .Wednesday’s telegram states:—Reports continue to come to hand of great damage in the country district r by the nor’-west gale on Monday night. The farmers will probably u 8eV u re , Buff2re rs. It is staled on all bands that the lately ploughed and sown soil has Jj e ® n j ? wn completely away, and the seed beds drifted up against the lee fences. In many instances paddocks have been swept bare of every vestige of loose soil. This has been deposited on the adjoining roads or piled up level with the fences, which in some cases are covered by it. At Sheffield the correspon cent of the Lyttelton Times describes the soil thus blown away as passing over in clouds that obscured the moonlight and filled the houses in that and the neighboring districts.

The schools were closed yesterday, the people being busy clearing the dirt out of the dwellings. Stacks, outhouses, and sheds naturally suffered severely everywhere. At Oxford the bush caught fire, three houses were burnt to the ground, and a stable was blown down. The Homebush station was destroyed. Sheffield suffered, but not so severely as Ashburton, where the violence of the gale was felt most severely. The telegraph wires were all down, the poles being snapped like carrots. The roof was blown off the Loan and Mercantile Agency Company’s big store, one end being taken clean off. All round the district suffered. A newly.erected engine shed at Springston, Mount Somers district, was completely destroyed. Houses, stables, and trees were blown down. At the Geraldine racecourse the grandstand was unroofed and the grain stacks damaged. The gale was felt with great force generally throughout South Canterbury.. Rain has fallen steadily all today, doing immense good to the early crops, pastures, &c.