THREAT TO RABAUL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 July 1941, Page 6

THREAT TO RABAUL

MATUPI CRATER AGAIN ACTIVE. PREPARATIONS FOR EVACUATION. SYDNEY, June 18. Matupi (Tavurvur) crater, as in May, 1937, is again threatening to wipe out Rabaul, administrative centre of New Guinea. The administration has made every preparation to evacuate the population of 10,000 whites, Chinese, and natives if there is another violent earthquake or eruption. Enough camps to house the entire population of Rabaul have been built in safe areas on the coast, and all local cars and lorries are ready to transport the people to the camps. About 100 Chinese women and a few white women are the only people who have left Rabaul recently. The Chinese women left because they lived, in that town most affected by the last big eruption in 1937; the white women because the dust was affecting the, health of their children. In a letter to a Sydney friend, a Rabaul resident. Mr Walter Hill, gives a description of the eruption which began on June 6. “There was an ominous rumble, an explosion,” he wrote, "then huge clouds of dirt and smoke belched from the crater, rose 2000 feet into the air, and completely blacked out Rabaul and the surrounding mountains. In every home houseboys were called, and cases and bags were packed ready to leave the town at a moment’s notice. “But there was no panic, and the native population went about its job with surprising calmness. They seemed to have learnt the value of calmness from their experiences when the crater first erupted in 1937. At five-minute intervals throughout Friday, June 6, huge clouds of smoke burst out of the mouth of the crater and rose hundreds of feet into the air. We got very little sleep that night. “The crater quietened on Saturday and Sunday, but on Monday the rumbling increased, and more dirt was hurled up. The rumour circulated that the town was to be evacuated. Inmates of the Rependik native hospital, fearful of being trapped, filed in a long line to Rabaul. But the crater calmed down again, in the evening, and they went back to hospital. During the night the rumbling increased, and the bursts of smoke and dirt became worse. There was a red fire-glow from the mouth of the crater, and slight earth tremors were felt. “On Tuesday morning the whole town was covered with a thick film of dirt and pumice dust. We were wakened early on Wednesday morning by a terrific explosion from the crater. There wes another explosion a few hours later, and. the town was partially blackedout by smoke clouds. On Thursday the smoke clouds ceased, but the rumblings continued. Today, June 13, we felt the first big earth tremor. As lam writing, great lumps of dirt are shooting up from the crater.” Since then the crater has continued active and the danger is constant.