Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/392

 m by those who have experienced it. From fire there may l>e escape under most cirenm stances; and its victims are often stifled before the flames reach their prey. For them who cannot swim or are without an ark of safety, the lapping of the rising flood as it mount b by slow but sure ascent before Bweeping oft" its victims is the most relentless persecutor. They are unboundj bat are as powerless as though they were chained to a rock. The horror of the scene by day becomes an agony of doubt by night. ^ One man with his wife, two children, and his mother, | with three men, after floating seven miles on a stack of barley, escaped by the exertions of those on land. Tales of distress were relieved by heroic deeds of life-saving. One man swam a mile with a boy upon his shoulders, and swimming a mile in an enraged torrent bearing WTeck with its foam is totally different from t^wimming in smooth w^ater, and withont encumbrance of clothes. The misery caused by tlie flood it was impossible to gauge. The loss of live stock and crops was estimated at £85,^248. Hundreds of the inhabitants were homeless, and without means of Bubsititence, Two hundred and thirty-eight w^omen, four hundred and sixty -one children, and seven hundred and ninety- four men, were objects of relief in a community of seven thousand Ave hundred persons. i While the w^aters were retiring. King issued an order fl (28t]i March) reducing the rations of those victualled from ^ the public stores. On the 20th June the ration was ^ furtlier reduced, pending the reaping of wheat in Novembert^ and the arrival of rice ordered from liulia. H Special attention to garden cultivation w^as earnestly * impressed upon the settlers, *'and particularly turnips^ ^ carrots, and cabbage, for which the present season is most ■ favourable." In June the Governor '* observed with much ™ concern'' that many gardens were neglected in the time of scarcity, and **no vegetables were growing." such indulgence, those who do not put the garden ground attach^id to the I nUotmetits they occupy iu cultivation, on or before the lOth July iiext» will be diapossessed (except in cases where ground is held by leaao), nud more industrious persona put in possession of them, as the present necessities reci«ire e'ery exertioji being used to supply the wants of
 * As such neglect in the occtipiers points tbem ont as unfit to [irorit by