VOLCANIC ERUPTION

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 272, 16 November 1943, Page 5

VOLCANIC ERUPTION

DAMAGE AT NIUAFOOU

NO LOSS OP LIFE REPORTED

(0 - a) . SUVA, October 30. A volcanic eruption occurred on the Tongan island of Niuafoou (better known as "Tin Can" Island) on September 26. The British Agent and Consul, Mr. C. W. T. Johnson, while there was ho loss of life and the eruption was said to have been less violent than has been the case on former occasions, there was widespread destruction of food ci ops from ash and sulphur spread by wind over the whole island. Salt which fell with heavy rains that followed the eruption was particularly destructive.

In a report on a visit to the island, Mr. Johnson said: "With the exception of the coconuts and an occasional mango tree all the foliage on the island that I was able to see, and even the grass, was browned and withered. Athough this eruption was stated to be less severe than the one of 1926, the wind in 1926 was blowing oft the island, whereas this time it was blowing in the opposite direction, right across it. "There was one main eruption, followed by three subsidiary ones, all of them being concentrated in a comparatively small area some two miles from the south shore of the island and close to the scene of previous eruptions.

"Our ship passed about a mile from the shore and we thus had a grandstand view of an unforgettable sight. Masses of molten lava, glowing red even in tHe daylight, were being thrown up 150 to 200 feet into the air, while .at the water's edge;was an- enormous column of smoke rising :housands of feet from what appeared to be a new submarine, eruption. It was at night, however, 'when we again passed close by, that we learned what a volcanic eruption really looked like. There were the four main explosions of glowing lava, with fires burning at innumerable points in the surrounding country, and the main flow of lava moving to the sea in a red-hot mass. But the most arresting sight at night was the immense, billowing column of smoke with it's red gloAv at the centre and its vivid blue streaks of what looked like fork lightning flashing continuously hundreds of feet up in the air."