TONGAN TORNADO.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 52, 4 March 1915, Page 2

TONGAN TORNADO.

THIRTEEN CHURCHES WRECKED a The island steamer Tofua, brought details of the severe hurricane which occurred in the Tongan group about the middle of last January. | A cable published about that time stated that a tornado had swept over the group, but no idea was conveyed of its severity.

According to Captain Todd and Chief Officer M'Donald, of the Tofua, it will take one portion of the island at least eight years to recover its former state of cultivation, while the food supply of the natives for the time being has been rendered precarious. Information furnished to the officers of the vessel by Mr J. Profchero, manager of Messrs Tindall and Ross's business at Nuiafooa, an island in the Tongan Group, is that the appearance of that island shows vividily the severe ordeal through which it has passed. "We have," he informed the captain, "passed through a fearful hurricane. h\ fact, one should call it a tornado. It is the largest, I am sure, that has ever visited the South Pacific, It started on Saturday, January 10, and lasted until Monday, January IS. It is the longest blow 1 have ever heard of. Our bulk store, a copra shed, and a dwel-ling-bouse were all wrecked. Every native bouse on the island was smashed, and out of 14 churches, belonging mostly to the .Methodist Foreign .Mission, only one was left standing. You do not know how Ave have been longing for the appearance of your vessel, as we did not get our mail away last time.

"It will take this island fully eight years to pick up like what it was before tho blow.' 1 was in the Haapol blow,

tbreo vcars ago, but this one was three times as bad.

"This is the first blow we have had from the south, as all previous hurricanes came from the north-east a'id north-west."

The ltov. Churchward, who came by the same vessel, said that the natives. had reported that the hurricane Jjad caused severe damage in Vavau, one of the islands in the Tongan Group. At Xuiafooa, the cocoanut trees were stripped of all their foliage, and the spray from the sea had also caused injury to the growth. The hurricane was sure to affect the food supply of the natives, but although it had suffered severely, he thought that the native resources would be sufficient.