FIJIAN NEWS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2126, 15 January 1880, Page 2

FIJIAN NEWS.

[By Telegraph.] AUCKLAND, Jan. 14,. The schooner Meg Mcrrilees brought Fijian news to Jan. 3. The tidal wave and hurricane at Fiji, on the 11th, did great damage, and caused serious loss of life, r Amongst those drowned were Mr Macpherson, Tairunce, and Mr Grundy, manager to Mr William Bailey ; also Mr S. L. B. Winter and two Fijians were lost at Ban. In a half-decked boat at Ban three Fijian men and thirteen women were drowned. In a canoe at Guru two natives were drowned and several houses blown down at Eadmar and and Madroch. The whole country was denuded of timber, and the native food crops destroyed. The steamer Go-ahead, engaged in towing a number of logs for the construction of Nicholl’s patent slip, had to cut them adrift to secure safety, and the progress of that much-needed work at Levuka is retarded in consequence. The schooner Stanley, of Queensland, 113 tons register, caught the full force of the gale. She had JSO islanders on board for Fiji, who were kept under battoued hatches for thirty hours with neither air or food, and some of them suffering from dysentry at the time. Fifty subsequently died, and one committed suicide on being discharged from the Levuka hospital. Ten more dearths are expected. H.M.S. Emerald, which had on board Sir Arthur Gordon and suite en route for Eototumate, encountered the cyclone off that island, but managed to weather it safely. Strange to say, the wind was from a different direction at that island from what it ivas at the Fiji group. Eototumate suffered in consequence.