RABAUL DISASTER
COSTLY RESTORATION OUTPUT OF PLANTATIONS The restoration of Rabaul after the disastrous volcanic eruption about two and a-half years ago was described by the Rev. K. Purefoy Fitzgerald, of the Melanesian Mission, who is paying a holiday visit to New Zealand. The eruption, he said, cost the Mandated Territory Government of New Guinea £40,000 spent mainly on the removal of 400,000 tons of lava debris which obliterated the countryside, i Native labour and motor trucks were employed to clear the land, which appeared to have lost none of its fertility, continued Mr. Fitzgerald. Copra plantations which were ruined in the eruption were again being brought into production, but it might be four or five years before the former output could again be reached. Only one or two plantations had been ruined beyond salvation. Mr. Fitzgerald said that before the eruption earthquakes were frequently experienced in Rabaul, but since the visitation there had been very few earthquakes, and none of a serious nature.
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Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20114, 7 December 1939, Page 6
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164RABAUL DISASTER Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20114, 7 December 1939, Page 6
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