LATER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 35, 10 February 1903, Page 5

LATER.

(Beceived 9.3 a.m.)

SAN FRANCISCO. February 9. Tt is feared the Friendly Island* have suffered worse than the Society Islands. ; Eight hundred deaths occurred at Haokikuera and Marakau alone. Eight whites were drowned., Only those who climbed (all trees escaped. The French are provisioning the Pauiuoto Archipelago and other island*.

[Tahiti is an island giving name to a .small archipelago, also called Society Islands, in "the mid Paciiic. more than 2000 miles N.E. of New Zealand, and some li-tOO S.S.W. of. San Francisco. The islands consist of Tahiti (which embrace^ 455 square miles out of a total of O37\for the entire archipelago), Raiatea, Moorea or Eimeo and others. The group is divided into the Windward and the Leeward clusters, and stretebes for about 200 miles N.W. and S.E. They are composed of i volcanic rocks, are mountainous (Orohena on Tahiti is 7340 feet-high), and well wooded, with belts Of low fertile soil along the shores, and girt by coral reefs. The scenery is magnificent, the chief island being often called.''the Garden of the Pacific." The

climate is very moist and hot (70deg to S-Ideg Fah.), but equable and healthy. Cocoanuts, oranges, vanilla, fruit, cotton, and sugar are grown, and these and mother-of-pearl, eocoanut fibre, and trepan'g are exported. The imports include textiles, Hour, wine, live stock, sugar, coffee, coal, timber and soap. The people cultivate the bread fruit, taro, yam, sweet potato, etc. The most important harbour is Papoete, the capital, in the N.E. of Tahiti, which has a Roman Catholic cathedral, an arsenal, and a population of 3224. The population at the end of 1888 of all the islands, was 11,181 (Tahiti, 9603; French, 319). The people, a handsome race of the Polynesian stock, are light-hearted and polite, but very immoral and imtrustworthy. The group was discovered by the Spanish navigator De Quiros, but lirst accurately described by Cook (1709-77), who named them in honour of the Royal Society of London;' the population then . numbered nearly 250,000. The London Missionary Society commenced work here in 1797; but in 1812 they had to flee for a while to Australia. In 1542 France forced a protectorate over the eastern cluster; the treaty of 1847 with Great Britain, recognising the independence of the western cluster, was abrogated in 1888, and tbe whole archipelago practically became a French possession.]

Several of the local mariners, who formerly traded between Auckland and Tahiti, were to-day interviewed. It was the general opinion amongst them thai no such calamity as the present had befallen the group before. About eight or nine years ago an exceptionally high tide was experienced at Papeete, the principal port, of the island of Tahiti. Beyond Hooding a number of-houses and business places near the beach, little damage was done, and tbe phenomenon would probably not have been noticed were it not for the fact that at Papeete the difference between the rise and the fall of the tide is very slight, probably not more than a few inches. The harbour of Papeote is protected by a lohg coral reef, forming a natural breakwater, and the entrance between the coral reef aud the main land is well sheltered from the tempests by a mountainous island, known as Morea.

When interviewed, Mr A. W. Donald, of the firm of Messrs Donald and Edenoorougli, said that it was his opinion lhat the cablegram more probably referred to the Shell Islands, which are situated from two to three hundred miles to eastward of Tahiti. This group comprises about 200 atolls or coral islands, and during the pearl season, which occurs about this time, large numbers of natives are employed on them, probably upwards of 5000. In the offseason the islands are uninhabited Messrs Donald and Edenborough have wired to San Francisco for. particulars, and are hourly expecting a reply. (CONTINUED ON PAGE 2.)