FIJI’S GREAT HURRICANE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 889, 5 February 1930, Page 7

FIJI’S GREAT HURRICANE

ANGLICAN MISSION SUFFERS Press Association WELLINGTON, Tuesday. An account of the damage wrought by the recent hurricane in Fiji was given by Archdeacon AV. J. Hands, vicar of Suva and Archdeacon of Fiji, today. The hurricane lasted for two days and for 16 hours it blew at the rate of 120 miles an hour, devastating the whole countryside. At Lambasa, on the island of Vanualevu, which is the centre of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company’s operations and where the headquarters of the Church of England Indian. Mission is situated, the wind was accompanied by heavy rain. The river rose rapidly, flooding all the surrounding flat lands to a depth of 7ft. The mission school and the dispensary were laid flat by the wind and the timbers carried away by the rushing waters. Nothing remained except the concrete floor of the dispensary and a few piles. A piece of timber lifted by the wind killed a cow. All the houses are to be rebuilt, 20 men having gone from New Zealand to do that work. The damage to the Church of England Mission property is estimated at between £2,000 and £3,000. An apof Missions for the repairing of the damage.