THE HURRICANE IN THE NEW HEBRIDES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 90, 18 April 1893, Page 5

THE HURRICANE IN THE NEW HEBRIDES.

POSITION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN MISSION. LATER INFORMATION. A special meeting of the Foreign Mission Committee of tho Presbyterian Church ot Canterbury waß held on April 13th in St. Paul's Schoolroom. Christchurch, at which a letter from Mr R. M. McDowall was read, giving furthet details of the damage done by the hurricane which lately passed over the islands of Mallicollo and Ambrym. The following extract from the letter will be read with interest. The letter is dated Ambrym. New Hebrides, March 8, 1831?: _" Telegraphically, we are destitute, having lost everything but life in a hurricane on Saturday nighb «.ud Sunday morning. Thank God, no hurt to life and limb has occurred to any of us, and we are in the beet of health. Many thines have only been damaged and not destroyed; and a quantity of our provisions has been saved. Our dwellings are shattered and dispersed over the land and into the sea. iNotbing remmns but the walls of two stone houses built for married couples, and a native house built of lismari and cocoanut leaves in which twenty-one of us are huddled together, and for the preservation of which we are devoutly thankful. The greater number of our things which were perishable have been destroyed, and it grieves us very much to look round and see our keepsakes dilapidated beyond recognition. This, however, is the least of our trouble, and may soon be forgotten and overcome; what moro immediately concerns us is how to make a living room or rooms oufc of the debris, and how to feed ourselves and numbers of our natives, who will ere long be starving. , I have written Dr. Cosh, my agenb in Sydney, bo send food by return steamer, and, failing her, by man-of-war ; but long before we can get an answer from New Zealand the poor people here will be in the midsb of tho woes of starvation and ita accompanying horrors in a savage land. Of course, tbe cocoanub trees will soon I nick up, and in two months they will have

edible fruit, and some yams are so ripe as !to make it no matter that the tops have I been'blown away ; bub the greater parb of ' the people will have nobhing bub scraps in a week or two, and must so continue for several months." Tbe Committeee agreed to send immediately to Dr. Lamb material for a house, i prepared and ready for erection, and that lan appeal should be made to the members of the church for contributions towards this object, and also for. further contributions for the purpose of providing food for the starving natives. Subscriptions towards I either of these objects maybe handed to any ! of the Presbyterian ministers of fche city, or 1 may be posted to the Rev. R. Erwin, Fend«iton, Convener of the Mission Committee.