THE SOUTH SEAS.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1251, 22 March 1878, Page 2

THE SOUTH SEAS.

FRIGHTFUL HURRICANE AND LOSS QF LIFE. ' [By Telegraph.] £phb pbebs agency,] Auckland, March 23The Blanche brings news from Roratonga of a dreadful hurricane at Paumoto. Five hundred lives were lost and many vessels wrecked, A correspondent, writing from Roratonga on March sth, says: —“One of the Society’s vessels, which has arrived from Tahiti, reports one of the Paumoto logo >n islands named Anan has been completely swept by a hurricane or tidal wave. Houses, trees, stores, and inhabitants are all gone. Mr Bosio, trading agent for Messrs Brauders, Tahiti, , escaped witli a few others. The greater portion of the group is devastated. Between 400 and 500 lives were lost, besides several vessels. An eye-witness at Paupeke writes : The water rose over the land sweeping away ever thin g. We retreated to the highest point, about 20it. above the sea level. Fortunately the cyclone abated when the water was within 2ft. of us. The Tahiti Government have sent men-of-war. The Island of Kauhira has suffered most, losing 117 people and ajl the houses and boats. Mr Brander lost three schooners, one cutter, and twelve small boats, besides tha whaling establishment at Anan. The cyclone continued from the jftfc of February to the Bth.