AMBRYM ISLAND ERUPTION

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 288, 31 August 1929, Page 10

AMBRYM ISLAND ERUPTION

SPECTATOR’S NARRATIVE

DESTRUCTION OF MISSION Dominion Special Service. Auckland, August 30. A spectator at the disastrous eruption on Ambrym Island, New Hebrides, on June 28, Mr. C. R. Stringer, of the Presbyterian Misslofi, is now in Auckland. ± . .. Mr. Stringer was returning to the island from a meeting of the Mission Synod when, from an anchorage 25 miles away, he saw the disturbance commence. It began with a flareup in the darkness, and then a river of lava swept towards the sea, wiping up trees and gardens and isolated native huts, forcing the hurried evacuation of this portion of the coast, and finally demolishing two mission stations and sending up clouds of steam as the hot rock met the sea. Several Infirm natives who lived in the bush lost their lives, but the populations round the mission stations received warning and took to boats.

Ambrym Island is roughly triangular in shape, a circuit of coastline being about 70 miles. The centre of the island is an ash plain, and the habitation is generally concentrated on the three corners of the island. An eruption in 1913 caused considerable loss of life among the native communities and t..e mission station and hospital were destroyed. Mr. Stringer had charge of the Presbyterian Mission at Craig Cove. A French priest also was stationed near this spot, and about five miles away at Baiap a New Zealander, Mr. Taylor, conducted a Seventh Day Adventist mission.

“Mount Benbow was the chief offender this time,” said Mr. Stringer. “The extraordinary thing is that the mountain is about 11 miles from Craig Cove, and a crater about 3000 feet deep, a mile long, and three-quarters of a mile wide had z to be filled up before the lava stream overflowed and made for the coast. The lava found the valleys and in places the molten stream was half a mile wide. It reached Baiap that night, and Mr. Taylor,. his wife and child had abandoned their station only half an hour when it was engulfed. They spent the night in a native village.” Mr. Stringer said the lava did not reach Craig Cove until the day broke. Immediately the security of the settlement was threatened the natives launched the mission motor boat. In Mr. Stringer’s absence, James Kum, a native teacher, took charge and 74 people were taken on the launch without undue panic. Mr. Harvey, a European trader, took 63 natives on his launch, and the refugees were taken 13 miles ta Malekula, on another island. The inhabitants of this island had seen the eruption in its early stages and a number of boats were sent to help with the evacuation. It was pitch dark and a fair sea was running, but the population of 400 or 500 was safely transferred, a few bush natives hurrying from inland to join in the exodus. Terrors were increased by the opening of another volcano a few miles from Craig Cove, while an eruption occurred on the beach, and less than three-quarters of a mile off shore a further upheaval occurred in the 100fathom line. So great was the disturbance at this depth that a column of water and debris was seen in the daylight to be reaching nearly 600 feet. The Presbyterian Church and the residence was carried away and 7 feet of rock has been deposited where the buildings stood. The Roman Catholic building escaped, and the lava stream played some strange tricks, sweeping up almost to the walls of the trader’s house and the copra store without causing further damage. Yam plots and coconut palms went down before the lava, but the native village was only lightly touched. Glowing ashes had set alight to seven or eight huts. The eruption near the water smothered a sandy stretch with a hill 50 feet in height. In the hasty departure nothing could be done to save the contents of the Presbyterian Mission.