FAMINE AND LAVA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 1509, 16 January 1914, Page 7

FAMINE AND LAVA.

JAPANESE CATASTROPHES.

VOLCANIC ERUPTION.

A HAIL OF BOULDERS.

RESCUE SHIP SUNK.

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright

(Received January 15, 8.5 p.m.)

Tokio, January 14In connection with the eruption at £ ikura Shima, the means of rescue proved altogether inadequate. The crowds of fugitives on the beach were overtaken by the fire and lava, though the launches plied heroically amid a hail of boulders and stones. Over 70,000 are missing. One ship with 307 refugees aboard sank during the second eruption. Many people were drowned in trying to swim the strait to the mainland.

Sakura Shima is still shrouded in black smoke, broken occasionally by a flicker of flames. The bay is covered with lava. There are no refugees from the three villages at Sakura Shima. Some of the fugitives lost their way in the thick smoke, and were suffocated by the poisonous gases, while others terrorstriken by the fire rushed into the sea and were drowned. The earthquakes are now subsiding, but the appalling rumblings of the earth continue.

A typhoon is blowing. Over 600 houses at Kagoshima collapsed after one violent shock on Monday. Thereafter the shaking of the earth was bo great that it was impossible to walk upright. The fugitives had to crawl and stumble out of the city mainly on their hands and knees.

Warships which have arrived from Kagoshima report that the town was practically destroyed by the eruption. Many villages and towns in the neighbourhood were also overwhelmed. TOWN BURIED BY ASHES. SMOKE MILES HIGH. Times-Sydney Sun Special Cable. (Received January 15, 7.45 p.m.) Tokio. January 14. All the villages round Sakura Shima have been destroyed. Kagoshima is embedded two or three feet deep under ashes. The volcano is emitting smoke three miles high and ashes are falling here, 600 miles away. The mainland, several miles distant from Sakura, has been scourged by fire and floodREAL EXTENT CONCEALED. LONG-SUFFERING PEOPLE. By Toleeraph— Press Association—Copyright. (Received January 15. 6.20 p.m.) Tokio. January 14. The officials have hidden the extent of the Hokkaido famine, fearing the effects on the Government's financial standing. The people are so inured to conditions approaching to destitution that they complain only when faced with starvation. The real remedy is the cultivation of rice on scientific principles. A sum of £2,000,000 has been lost by the failure of the present rice crop and fisheries.