HURRICANE IN FIJI

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25677, 14 December 1948, Page 5

HURRICANE IN FIJI

SUPPLIES TO LAU BY AIR “ MAJOR DISASTER FOR COPRA INDUSTRY” (Rec. 8 p.m.) SUVA, December 13. The Royal New Zealand Air Force to-day began carrying supplies to the hurricane-devastated islands of the eastern portions of Fiji. A Catalina will make three trips a aay for three days, carrying emergency food supplies from Suva to isolated Fijian communities in the Lau Group. A preliminary aerial survey to-day revealed that many of the most* productive islands in Fiji resemble Tarawa and other West Pacific islands after full-scale air and sea bombardments during the war. No copra is likely to come from Lau—one of Fiji’s largest copra areas—for three years. The hurricane was the worst since 1912. Village after village has been demolished, food crops destroyed, and coconut groves stripped or uprooted. The island of Tavenuni, north of Lau. has lost between 50 per cent, and 75 per cent, of the 1949 copra production. The hurricane was a major disaster for Fiji’s copra industry, which is about two-thirds Fijian owned and one-third European owned. Planters were only just beginning to benefit from high post-war prices after many years of depression. No overall estimate of the loss is yet available.