THE HURRICANE AT SAMOA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 117, 17 May 1879, Page 4

THE HURRICANE AT SAMOA.

Tiie correspondent of the Auckland Star writes :—

' We have had what might be conBidered a rainy season. That is it has rained almost daily for the past four months, and by way of variety on the 4th of March we had what I should call a hurricane. The people here use a milder name and call it a cyclone; but they would probably nofc be satisflsd to call anything a hurricane _which did not pick them up anl carry them two or three miles out to eea or oo the mountains, The advent of the hurricane was guessed a few days before by a very heavy swell rolliug into the harbor. And on the eve of its approach the glass went lower than in ten years before. All knew that sometbin^ was coining and, prepared for it by closing sod barricading their stores and housee. Showers had fallen at intervals during the day, end towards night, large masses of black- clouds rolled up out of the eea end settled over the islands. About 9 p.m., the gale came along, and by 4 a.m., culminated in the velocity of a hurricane. Few people slept that night, and by early dawn the natives were out patching up such of their fales aa were standing, while foreigners were cabling their houses to the earth by huge hawsers thrown over the roofs, and fastened to the trunks of trees etc. Many of the roofs, however, had already departed on the wings of the gale, while others were whipped full of holes, and the inmates drenched, and the interior of the houses flooded. Zinc and sheetiron roofs fared wore?, and the top went from J. C. Godeffroi and- Son's factory, boat-house, store, etc., and they lost 150 bales of cotton, besides a large amouDt of dry goods, etc. Other buildings suffered in a similar manner. The gale prevailed three days, accompanied by constantly descending torrents of tropical outpourings. After the rain ceased, on the third or fourth day, l strolled around the beach to observe the effects of the storm. Not a native house in Apia but bad suffered damage, while moet of them were flat with the ground. Huge bread-fruit trees lay prostrate everywhere, torn up by the roots. Orange trees the same, laden wnh thousands of the luscious fruit. The limbs on the windward side of the tufted tops of the cocoanut trees were completely twisted off. Tbe bridge over the Vaisigaga River wae i Bwept away, and the bar at its mouth and the river widened to three times its ordinary size. The bay was filled with drift wood from the torest which the natives gathered along the beach. In the afternoon I went out to Mulinuu, the capital of Samoa. This is a narrow peninsula on one sideof Jfce bay, perhaps two miles long and five hundred yards wide. Jt is flat and covered with cocoanut, breadfruit, banana trees and beautiful green grass— a lovely spot in Mir weather, ever overswept by the balmy sea breezes. Here all the Government people live. But Mulinuu was now a wreck, I counted seventynye native noraes— and there are no others there—utterly demolished, in-

cluding two native churches, all flat with tho ground, and breadfruit trees prostrated on the top of many of them. Hardly a breadfruit tree remained standing, and but few houses; The natives were lying on the ground, and their mats and seeapa strips were spread over the grass, with their household furniture, drying. The breadfruit crop is almost wholly destroyed, and also the cocoanuts, and yet some of the wise ones who failed to have the hair torn off their heads, try to make us helieve that this was only a very mild breeze, a little mischievous in its pranks and that was all. The Samoans have since been living principally on bananas. The poor people will have a hard time of it for a while. There is no flour in Apia ; the beer is all gone, and we are generally short of something to eat ; but expect the arrival of 3ome vessels daily with something. Since the hurricade disaster the people have been occupied in rebuilding their frail tenements, or building anew, and in finding something to eat. Yet, notwithstanding such a visitation— which only comes about once £n fifteen years on an average—this is certainly one of the most healthful climates and lovely places to live on earth. And if labour could be obtained, or the natives induced to work, these Islands would become the very Garden of the Pacific Ocean. Clothing is hardly a consideration, and ordinarily the earth produces spontaneously a sufficiency for the supply of the inhabitants.