SAMOAN HURRICANE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 16, 20 January 1926, Page 11

SAMOAN HURRICANE.

■ *' THE LADY ROBERTS DAMAGED. THE COOK ISLANDS GALE. (By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.") WELLINGTON, this day. Advice has been received by the External Affairs Department that the Samoan Government steamer LadyRoberts, driven ashore on the inner reef at Apia during a hurricane on New Year's Day, was towed off. The bull is intact, but repairs are necessary and the steamer will have to be towed to Suva for slipping. This work will probably be done by the steamer Hinemoa on an early trip to Niue. The Resident Commissioner at the Cook Islands (Mr. Ayson) has reported that the week prior to the Samoan hurricane the Cook group was visited by a violent storm, when the sea broke over the wharf at Rarotonga. the water reaching the Government Building steps. Part of the old outer wharf was destroyed, but the new wharf is intact. Considerable damage was done to the banana plantations, 40 per cent of the old trees being destroyed, but the new plantings escaped. Many citrus trees lost part of the crop, but the yields are so heavy that it is unlikely to make an appreciable difference. As the season advances the banana output will show a drop during the next four months.