Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/224

The great floods were perhaps more severely felt in Little Akaloa than anywhere, and were attended with loss of life: a child of Mr. May’s being drowned, and another narrowly escaping. The creek bed was so clogged with debris that it dammed itself continually, and the water came down in great waves. Mr. William Ashton lived on the flat, and the creek made a bend round his dwelling. An out-honse, which a day or two before had been filled with provisions, was completely washed away to sea. Mr. Ashton would not leave the house for some time, but finding the creek was dammed above, and fearing danger he shifted over to his father’s house, the bridge by which he made his escape going half-an-hour afterwards. In the morning he found the house completely undermined and unfit for habitation, and he was indeed lucky to have taken his family and himself out of danger. The roads even now bear testimony of the havoc done, several bridges being washed away.

Little Akaloa is a happy valley, and now the bush is all cleared is the home of many settlers, who do not regret their choice. Cheese, grass seed, and wool are the chief exports, and a good quantity of firewood even now finds its way out of the Bay.