FIJI. DESTRUCTIVE HURRICANE. SERIOUS LOSS OF LIFE. General Devastation. Levuka, March 17.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 147, 27 March 1886, Page 5

FIJI . DESTRUCTIVE HURRICANE. SERIOUS LOSS OF LIFE. General Devastation. Levuka, March 17.

In my January letter, I reported the storm which visited tho group on the 4th of that month. From its cyclonic or rotary char actei*, wo concluded that it was our annual " blow," and we shook hands with ourselves all round as we congratulated each other on tho fact that it had done so little real damage, however severely it had been felt in parts. I also referred to the exaggerated terms in which Fiji hurricances were generally described. I explained what would be tho effect of a real hurricane upon our frail structures, our luxuriant but insecurely rooted vegetation, and our imperfectly defended harbours, and spoke of the '71 hurricane as being the only disturbance worthy of this name that I had experienced during a residence of seventeen years. Alas! for the too hasty congratulations. Alas ' for the too correct estimate of what would follow an actual tornado ; and alas ! that my experiences should have beon so suddenly and unpleasantly enlarged. We have, during this month, been visited by a hurricane compared to which those who felt its full fury declare the last storm to have been a sucking baby. Fortunately, it has not swept o\er tho entire group. But with respect to the places which stood in its track, it has lett behind it wide-spread desolation. It ha- cl timed a hscatomb ot human vicim*. While the loss to property afln.tt :\nd ashore bas been, tor Fiji, enoimous.

Lcvuka Wrecked. elFects from my own immediate stan»ip")int tir&t, it has to bo l'emarked that the tempest gave ample warning of its appioieh. It ha 3, in fact, been contidently prtu *.*" d by the more weathenvise, but a* mutual course, such predictions secure a deal more attention after the event and when the mischief has been done than before \uineation, and while the warning could be turned to good account. It began on T lie: nay, 2nd, and blew in litful angry gu?t? irom S Ei accompanied by heavy rain squalid, These increased in frequency, duration, and \iolenceon Wednesday, the gla*? steaiiiy falling all day This gave the signal for all the craft in harbour to clear out to Xaikorokoro, where they are protected by high land on the nonh, whence the fiercest fury of these *iorui5 is generally exper-i-enccd. Wednesday night it grew worse and worse, and before midnight was blowing a heavy gale from the S.E., the frequent gu?t? rising to Luiricane force, and the rain -quails beating down vsith true tropicil \kiienee, both as to -volume and strength. By daylight, it was evident that the usual, but no more than the usual, amount of damage had been done, in Lo i-es unroofed, verandahs cariied away, fences levelled, and vegetation generally dishevelled. But from that point to 7 a.m. the storm burst on the over-ripe town ! in unprecedented fury I have called it cver-upe, because ot the many old building* j — trail, dilapidated, wooden structures — it contains, which in many cases were tottering to th>_ir fall, and in others were made to present a more stable appearauce by the judicious stitch-in-time of the all-concealing paint-brush. It was amongst these that the \ havoc was greatest, though it was by no means confined to them, and during that two hours the scene for those who had to keep the streets was lively indeed. The frail old constructions weie blown over or crashed down piecemeal in every direction. The air was thick with sheets of iron, sections of shingled roofs, signa, shutters, lumber of eveiy description, and torn and twisted branches were hurled about like dry leave? by the fury of the blasts. The high tide, assisted by the heavy swell from r>ca»vard, which swept in o\er the reef, dashed upo r ) the main thoroughfare, carrying with it paits of the sea wall and the fore=hoie. The deluge of rain wa3 hurled with stinging and blinding violence against the face? of those who had to make headway against it, and at this time, when the necessity of conveying to places of shelter those who had been deprived of house and home, and left exposed to the violence of the temptest, forced an unusual number to mo-e about through the storm, the passage of the street \va» not only a matter ot dimculty. but one of extreme danger. Strange to gay, but three people were injured by the flying debri*, and in neither case very eerioualy. Still the gla-s kept falling till it reached :IS 40, and still the work of destruction went on, though there was a slight moderation after 7 am. A more decided but very gradual-uo=idencewasnoticed after 11 a id., and by 4 p.m. people were abb to go about and =ee what danuge had been done. The fccene wa* trulv pitiable, and the town would not ha\e presented to woebegone and battered an appearance, though more leal damage might per haps have been done by a twenty-four hour~' bombardment. The streets were only payable with difficulty, in conse quecne of the rubbish thrown up by the tide, and the ruins thrown down by the terr-pe-t Dozen? of houses were down, and ot tht lemainder, the great majority were uvooted, the verandahs torn oft, the structure wrecked or badly strained, and the conten- = ruined by exposure to wind an rain, not moie than a i-core of the dwellings and bu-ine;* places had escaped injury, though tiio 1 itter have suffered in minor degree, ai'd veiy littlo damage was done to stocks Ueahjsrv.ith public buildings only, the Koiiictn Catholic Church '.vas reduced to a heau ui tplinttrcd timber. The side was blo.-.n out o* the .English Church. The We-Lyan Isative Church had only its concrete w all3 standing. The gaol (native) was unroofed. The Good Templar Hall was bodily lifted ten feet out of position, and dropped down again so that it; now looks like a feat upon belltopper. The Levuka Club is a rmn, and the club members dispersed. Polynesian Club, a ramshackle old building, came down a heap of lumber into the middle of the street, and has since been sola for €13 ; and the Royal Hotel wa=" made to assums a more utterly disro putable and dissipated appearance than the most drunken beach-comber who ever stepped from its door. Daraaze^ to private buildings cannot be particularised for obvious reasons,, but it may be mentioned that not a little loss, and very eerioua inconvenience, has been caused by the wholesale carrying away of detached premises, kitchens, servants' quarters, etc , etc. In this way, the Manager of the Bank of New Zealand, who was helping a neighbour, saw his diningroom go, and as it stood on the crest of a high hill, with a deep gully and creek to leeward, its disappearance in sections, first roof, and then the walls, afforded him a novel though scarcely an agreeable spectacle. He is still hunting for the contents dm ing what spare hours he can spare for a queat, which does not yield very encouraging results. i

Among the Shipping. Fifteen vessels lay at Naikorokoro the i ight betore the storm, and in the morning 1 it seven were left. Hitherto the direction i t these rotary etorms has been from S.E. 1 )und through E. to N., whence came its t. reatest fury, veering thence to W., where ii; has blown itself out. This one, most unfortunately, worked from S.E. round through W. to N., and therefore, instead of receiving the shelter expected at Naikorokoro, the vessels were fully exposed to the tempest, with the above result. Among the vessels lost from here are the ketch Patience and all hands (Captain W. Jones and four native sailors) ; cutter Korotubu, the captain of which turned up eight days after the storm with a fearful tale of exposure and peril, but the other three hands were lost ; cutter Fui Nabukelevu capsized and foundered, and a German named Wilden drowned. The other boats came on shore, ana will be got off and repaired with few exceptions.

Taviuni Devastated. Taviuni evidently lay in the central track of the cyclone, and it has been swept as with the broom of destruction. The Union Steamship Company's Suva was lying at Vuna, the chief centre of European population, wnen the storm came on, and she ran for shelter to Buca Bay, Vanua Levu, behind the island of Kioa. Here she hung it out, while her glass went to 27 57. Your friend, Mr E. Ford, was on board, watching this barometrical phenomenon, and reporting to Captain Crawshaw on the bridge, and his description of the matter is that he "really thought the blessed bottom was out of the thing," On returning to where Vuna once stood they found it a heap of ruins. It felt the full force of the tempest, and then for an hour came the dead unnatural calm which always marks the centre of the cyclone. Suddenly the wind struck them from the opposite quarter with redoubled fury. Everything that would blow down wont, and then in rushed the sea, forced up by the furious westerly blasts. What the cyclone spared, the wave took, and but fi\e houses were left standing when the morning dawned. The hotel, stores, the dwelling houses, all were levelled, and the debris carried far inshore by the rush of the water, or buried under sand and shingle The people have since been digging their goods out of what seems a century old beach. The landlord of the Vuna Hotel, J. Easier, was naught in the mine of his house and so severely injured that he has since died. Holmhurst Mi'l has suffered severely. The chimney shafts have been karoused down, and all the buildings more or less damaged, while the cane crop has been laid flat ; but it yet remains to bo seen what will be the permanent injury in this particular. All along the coast line the record of disaster is but less in degree than at Vuna, because the houses are fewer. The houses, however, have in many cases disappeared, and the sites are strewn with shingles. The Alpha tea plantation has been clean blown away ; trees uprooted and disappeared. One Coolie was killed, and several peverely injured by the falling buildings. The buildings on almost every homestead are down or damaged, and the devastation is general.

Kambi in Ruins, The steamer called at Iiambi, and found Captain Hill and his family living in two tanks. The dwelling-houses were down, and the labour-lines had been washed awav by an inrush of the sea, which among other damage drowned four of the coolies. All the buildings in the place are levelled or badly injured, and the island looks as though it had been swept by a fire, so scorched and blackened is everything by the violence of the tempest.

Loma Loma ha3 suffered but lightly by comparison, though here also the buildings are down, stored unrooted, and all cultivation utterly de&troyed. Among the Europeans Messrs \V. and Chris. Heinings are the greatest sufferers. Here the German oarque Gustav lay loading copra, and with 3 anchors down she slowly dragged till she touched twice, when at the critical moment the wind went round, and backed her off into deep uatcir.

Mago. Mago, or Mango, to suit the ideas of the Company, has also sustained great injury ; the crop-j are laid, the buildings down, the wharf and landing-place utterly destroyed, 19 tons of sugar damaged with salt water, and the schooner Eastward Ho a dismasted hulk. The effects will seriously affect the yield of produce from the island for a long while to come.

Gau. This island has suffered worst of those in Lomai Viti from which reports have yet been received. Like the west coast of Taviuni at Vuna, its windward side is undefended by a eea reef, and a wave rushed in on them on the Wednesday night, completely sweeping away many of the towns and ruining the others. The actual rise of the water i3 supposed to have been about 9 feet, and it can be imagined to what height this would crash before such a wind force as was then prevailing. Here it is feared that a heavy loss of life has occurred, as a schooner, the Uiui Boro Tu, with 23 Fijians onboard, which had just come to anchor, went down, or was driven to sea, and has not since been heard of,

Koro Hb7J>i* Had the good fortune to escape very lightly, though the wave felt at Gau swept up on its S E. end and destroyed several ot tho native towns.

Savusavu Felt the fury of the storm in lesser degree only than Vuna and Rabi, and the damage on .shore is very terrible, while from it and its vicinity no less than ten wrecks of cutters and schooners are reported.

Kewa Evidently lay on the edge of the storm track. It experienced a heavy gale of wind, and an extraordinary downpour of rain, which between them laid the cane crops, and did comparatively light damage to buildings. But as moat of the cane is young, it will, it is hoped, rise again, and the lo&s will be minimised. The water rose, but as the wind was -with the stream, the flood was light, and altogether, Rewa is to be congratulated.

Barque Bella Mary Wrecked. Suva felt the gale over the hills which lie at the back of the town, and was thus protected from its violence. Moreover, the houses are strong and new. Therefore the damage on shore was chiefly confined to that caused by the phenomenal deluge of rain which beat in everywhere, and did considerable injury to the contents of the houses. In the harbour the shipping suffered heavily. The colonial navy Clyde (s.s.) which was left fast to a buoy without a man on board, broke adrift, went stern first on the wharf, and sank alongside. Four or five other vessels also came to grief. The barque Bella Mary was also totally wrecked as early as Tuesday night. Her captain left Suva for Levuka about 2 p.m. on that day, and failing to get clear of the Bega reef, was picked up about six miles from Navua.

This was fortunate for him, for all hands were eaved, while had he been caught out in the storm at its height, he would, in all probability, never have been heard of again, except in fragments, perhaps.

Outside the Storm Belt. With the exceptions noted (Suva and Rewa), all Viti Levn may be said to have escaped. Ba, where the New Zealand Sugar Company is, has not a cane down, and received only sufficient rain to give the cane an even better than good chance for next season. The Yasawa group for once goes free ; so does all the western end of Vanua Livu from Waununu round to Dreketi. Strange to Pay, Kadavu, which appeared to lie right in the centre track of the cyclone as it travelled to the S.W., is reported to have suffered hardly any damage, and so far as it yet known, the brunt has fallen where I have already indicated.

Native Towns. Wheresoever the storm has passed, and especially in all the places noted, these frail constructions have gone down before wind and tide like card houses before the breath of the builder. This, however, would not entail upon the occupants very serious or more than temporary loss and privation, as with a certain expenditure of labour they would soon be re-erected. But the roally serious damage, both to them, and, in only a lesser degree, to the Europeans, has been caused by the terrible havoc among cocoanuts, breadfruit, banana, and food plantations Here the destruction has, with respect to root crops, been total, and, with regard to fruit trees, unprecedented within European or native memory. Tho tops of the nut troos are twisted off the immature fruit in all stages strews the giound. The same remarks apply to tho breadfruit, which have been torn up in thou&ands, and the banana plantations have simply ceased to be. One grower eays"Of from lo.OOO to 16,000 plants.I have left perhaps, between 500 and 000 farthest in shore, and to the Europeans it means very heavy present loss, in produce spoilod, and expenditure rendered immediately necessary, and prospective loss in a seriously decreased yield for the next two years. To the native it means food gone, the harvest utterly spoiled, and the means of getting a shilling to supply the deficiency sadly restricted. It will mean actual want to them, and that veiy shortly, if the Government does not come to their assistance But it has alteady taken steps to learn tho extent of the disaster, and presumably with tho intent of rendering necessary aid. Solar as the colony at laigeis concerned, it did not need this last visitation to make its case now mgli desperate But it certainly has made very bad a great deal worse, and no one cares to think to what point we must now fall beforo the turning point isreached. Foragreatmany there will be no turning point in Fiji, but tho hurricane of lSSli will settle down on them as a total eclipse, with a voyage to another land to represent the passage of tho shadow.

Repairing Damages. Nevertheless, it in astonishing to see with what energy people have set to work to repair damaged and get things right again. Tho morning after the storm, the principal part— or at least a large proportion — of the population of Levuka were upon the housetops. E\ery man who would call himself a carpenter, or oven admit that ho had once sailed in tho same ship with a carpenter, was in prompt request ; and then not halt enough could be found From dawn till dark the town rang with hammer-strokes and tho hum of busy workers, like a s-hip-builder's yaid. Tho streets were cleaied up, ruins soited and straightened away, stray wreckage reclaimed and caited oil, roofs replaced, verandahs reconstructed, and fractures reduced in every direction. This has been going on day by day since, till one distinguished visitor by the Arawata remarked, "Why, I don't see anything more than signs of superficial damage '" Still these are yet too numerous to be pleasant, and a large outlay has to bo faced to set matters on the former looting. It is said, and truthfully, " Why what were tho old buildings worth? Nothing.'' And excluding them from consideration, it is estimated that the cost of repairing thoso in bettor case will be covered by fiom t'3000 to £4,000. Somuch for Levuka ; buttoventme a guess at the amount of damage done outside would be too hazardous, though it may bo safely assorted that in the aggregate it w ill serve to stamp tho present year as ono of disastrous memory in the annals of the colony throughout the lifetime ot the present generation.

The Havoc at Ramfoi and Taviuna. The Fiji " Timor, " contains the follow ing additional particulars ot the damage dono by the huiricane at Rarabi and Taviuna, The account is from notes furnished by the captain of the steamer Suva : —

Rambi. " Upon reaching tho island ot Rambi a fearful scene of desolation presented itself. Tho dwelling house had been blown down about 11 p m. on Thursday, and Capt. Hill's family lived in U\o tanks till the arrival of the h! earner. All the labour houses were washed away by an inrush of the sea which swept 200 yaids on shore. In this, thiee Indians were drowned or crushed to death, and ono littlo girl, the daughter of Mr Parfitt's Indian cook, who with her mother was on a visit to their friends, was swept out to sea and never peen again. The site where the labour houses stood in now a bed of sand and shingle. The fibre-mill was partially destroyed, the atorehouses wore utterly wrecked, and the boathouso and punts were smashed up. Tho island itself presents the appearance of wide-spread desolation. All the trees have suffered terribly, and it will tako years to fully recover from the eilects of the hurricane. The members of Captain Hill's family left by the steamer to find shelter at Taviuni.

Taviuna. On Hearing this island it seemed as if it had been swept by the besom of destruction, and tho closer tho approach, the more tei'rible became the evidences of destruction. Commencing at the south end, Vuna is completely wrecked. 1 ho Mission house is down. Dr. Brower's house is levelled. A heap of stones alone marks the site where Miller's store stood. The hotel is scattered in fragments far and near. McConnell's store is unroofed and has two feet of sand in it. Of Tarte's store, the roof alone ia visible, the walls having collapsed. Holnihurst mill is partially unroofed and other serioua injury has been done to it. Tho dwelling house and almost all the buildings on the estate are down. The sea hap washed away the beach road and totally altered the appearance of the beach. The large stone wharf has been swept away, and not even tho stones remain to tell where it stood. Vuna has been deprived of all its old landmarks. Tho highest tide-lino has been carried several hundreds of yards further inland. Tho boats were carried far in shore, and the whole place has been given over to the genius of destruction. Thore are only five houses lett standing .- Mr Tarte'a private residence, Mr Moore's, Mr Taylor's, Mr McDonnell's, and Mr Butschkow's. These had to give eholter to all the inhabitants of the place, Mr

McConnell has kept open house for about five and twenty people ever since the storm, and many of these had been stripped of everything they possessed. Now, both Messrs McConnell and Tarte are digging their goods out of what appears to be a century old beach. The latter found his safe, weighing over a quarter of a ton, fifty yards from its usual position, and the site where the hotel once stood is a fine tract of smooth sea sand.