THE EARTHQUAKES AT THE LOYALTY ISLANDS.

Evening Star, Issue 3847, 23 June 1875, Page 3

THE EARTHQUAKES AT THE LOYALTY ISLANDS.

GREAT LOSS OF LIFE. —A ELSE OP THE SEA AND DESTRUCTION OF NUMBERS OF COTTAGES. —TONS OF FI H AND NUMBERS OF TURTLES THROWN ON THE BEACH. For the information of our readers we translate from the * Moniteur de la Nouvelle Caledonie’ of the 28th of April last, a more detailed account of the late earthquakes in the Loyalty Islands, as given in extracts from letters of missionaries. Pere R. P Gaide, static ned at Lifu, writes from Gatcba, on the 4th of April, to one of his brother missionaries, saying : “ For the last eight days the soil of Lifu has been troubled by tremblings of the earth. On the night of Easter Sunday, about a quarter to 11 o’clock, w'e had perceived a first shock, a very strong one, which lasted almost a minute. During this same night, just before daybreak, two other shocks were felt, less violent, one of which lasted only for some seconds. On Easter Monday, about half-past 7 o’clock in the morning, there was a fresh shock, very strong, but very short. Ou the night of Tuesday, about 9 o’clock, there was a shock ns violent and as prolonged as the first. From that time Lifu seems to have recovered its equilibrium. After tho two powerful and prolonged shocks of which 1 have spoken we have been frightened by a phenomenon still more surprising. During more than two hours after the trembling of the earth the sea rose much higher and descended much lower than in the highest and lowest tides, and that, too, in tho space of a fev minutes. On tho two nights to which I have especially alluded, during a apace of about two hours, we have had a certain number of low and high tides ... At Oue, in the Bay of Chateaubriand, the sea has reached beyond the chapel blessed by Monseigneur last year, and which, as you know, is situated about fifty metres (over 162 feet) above the level of the highest tidi a. The church has been full of water. At Louengoni, on the southeast coast of Lifu, and more especially at Mou, the village where Boula resides, the sea has invaded all the cottages, and has cartied several away in retiring. Twenty-four persons have perished ; I do not as yet know whether these deathstaro at Mou only, or whether some of their, have perished in the different villages. Several had been killed by the falling rafters as the houses overturned and afterwards carried away. We have to add that the sea has definitely taken possession near the village of Mou, of the lands cultivated and habited by the natives • and the survivors will be able to fish on the spots where their plantations were This catastrophe took place after the first earthquake, on the night cf Easter Sunday. The number o! victims—twenty-four—in that invariably given by the Eug’iah who live south of Lifu, aud by the blacks. Mou has been quite ruined by the sea, and by the diluvium which it has left, as the natives say here. W c reckon about thirty victims, the greater portion of whom arc women and children.”