TERRIFIC STORM.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 3, 3 December 1931, Page 3

TERRIFIC STORM.

FIJIANS FRIGHTENED BY HAIL. Thunder and lightning are tilings within a Fijian’s knowledge, but hailstones are rare enough in the tropics to fill him with surprise and consternation. Tho severe tropical storm, experienced in Suva recently and which, as previously reported, resulted in a horse being struck dead by lightning, was apparently experienced witli even more intensity on the upper reaches of the Rewa River. It is reported that the appearance of hailstones as big as marbles caused considerable apprehension on the part of the natives. Writing from Nasole, the mnnager of a cattle run reported a terrific storm on November 20. Between each burst of thunder heavy hailstorms were experienced. “The. boys were bringing in the cows when the first shower fell,” lie writes. “Tho horses bolted, throwing one boy, and cows and calves stampeded in all directions. The labourers working in the fields ran home, and Fijians, frightened almost out of their lives, were running in all directions. “The house was' quickly filled with Fiji women who had been fishing near by. They howled and yelled,' and reckoned the end of the world was coming. “The Buli (head man of the village) and men from Serea were building a new bure, and the wind,took the roof off with them on top of it. You never saw such a circus. The natives here have never seen, hailstorms before and they ‘had the wind up’ completely. They one and all thought' that something awful was going to happen. They were the colour of ashes. “I must admit that after a while I got a bit windy mj'sclf. The forked lightning and thunderbolts wero awful. One flash tore up a coconut tree near the bails. Where it hit there was just a big blue ball of flame. Seru (one of the boys) got a lump’ as big as an egg just below the lino of hair on his forehead from one stone. The' boys bringing in the cows took -their umbrellas with them, but they were riddled in a minute or two.”