INDIES SUFFER.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 224, 21 September 1928, Page 7

INDIES SUFFER.

ESTIMATED DAMAGE.

Over £100,000 Of Government

Property Destroyed.

LEEWARD ISLANDS LOSSES.

(British Official Wireless.) (Received 12.50 p.m.) RUGBY, September 20,

A further report of the havoc done by the West Indies hurricane was received by the Colonial Office to-day in a telegram from the officer administrating the Government of Jamaica.

It states that the Commissioner of Turks and Caicos Islands reports that the first news received from Cockburn Harbour, Turks Island, indicates that the hurricane damage is serious. Seventeen lives were lost, including those of eight married men.

There is no news from Caicos Islands yet. Replies were received to-day from the Governors of the Leeward Islands and the Bahama# expressing the grateful thanks of the sufferers to whom the King sent messages of sympathy when the first news of the disaster was received.

The Governor of Leeward Islands in a telegram thanking the Colonial Secretary for the telegram of sympathy, adds: "Although the damage as reported in my telegram is very serious and , many are homeless, relief work is well in hand and cases of immediate distress are being dealt with and assistance rendered as far as possible." The Colonial Office has received a telegram from the Governor of the Leeward Islands, giving details of the loss of life and damage caused by the hurricane. The Governor visited Montserrat, where he found the destruction and damage very heavy. The hospital nurses' and matron's quarters were demolished, bridges were destroyed, the jetty was badly damaged and all _ Government buildings were stripped. The telephone exchange and telephone lines throughout the islaEd were destroyed. Two-thirds of the peasants' houses were totally destroyed and several principal houses in Plymouth were damaged. Five Protestant churches, a Roman Catholic Church, a Wesleyan - chapel house and several estate residences were wrecked. There were 40 deaths and 70 were injured. The damage to Government property and peasant huts is estimated at £30,000. In Nevis little damage was done to Government property, but many huts of the poorer classes were demolished. Deaths numbered thirteen and injured 50. In Saint Kitts the Government building was slightly damaged and many small huts were demolished. Six deaths were reported. In Antigua the Government property and peasant hufs were damaged to the extent of £7000. The 'Administrator of Dominica reports one death, four jetties demolished and one damaged, the Roseau seafront partially destroyed and great damage to roads and country telephones and the electric lighting system. Heavy loss to general cultivation is feared, and there may be a food shortage later, owing to the destruction of crops. The estimated damage to the Public Works Department : is £60,000. The total estimated damage to the Government property and peasant huts i in Dominica, Montserrat, Antigua, Saint [ Christopher and Nevis is £100,000.

All the deaths and injuries occurred among the labour class.

\ INCREASING MISERY. PORTO EICO'S PLIGHT. (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) NEW YORK, September 20. Reports from Guadeloupe and Porto Rico, West Indies, tell of increasing misery. Thousands of dead cattle lie rotting in the sun and spreading disease. Women and children are suffering greatly. Many people have become insane and the number of suicides is increasing.