A TYPHOON.

Otago Witness, Issue 1205, 2 January 1875, Page 4

A TYPHOON.

A contributor to the Australasian writ^M as follows: — "Up to this time I have n^M seen in the Melbourne journals any detailt^H account of the typhoon which lately wreok^H Macao and half destroyed Hong Kong. old friend writes to me (sth October) :-^H • Did you ever experience a typhoon, JH cyclone, as they are sometimes called ? have, and pretty bad ones, too— as, ifll instance, one in Whampoa (near Canton) 1862, when some 50,000 people were drowntHl and killed in the province of Kwang-Tun^M Hong Kong only got a spit of that one, b|H unfortunately the full force of the last a^fl parently expended itself over Hong Ko^H and Macao. The appearance of o^H pretty colony is spoiled, for nearly the trees and shrubs are either u^H rooted or blown down, and 15 or 20 years w^H scarcely put the place in the same conditi^H it was in before the typhoon. Macao, 1«| substantially built and more exposed to "t^H force of the sea, may be almost said no longer exist. The papers I send vflH give you a faint idea of the loss of life ash^H and afloat, and the terrible destruction property. Of 14 vessels at their anchors^H Macao before the blow, only two remair^^H afloat. A Portuguese man-of-war was carrflH 12 miles inland, And is stranded in a ri^H field. In Typa Harbour, out of 600 juij^H only 14 were found after the typhoon. J^^| loss of life amongst the native floating JUsH| lation will never be ascertained corrV^^H but it has been terrible, and amoun^^B many thousands. In Macao (Portugu^H colony) they had to resort to wholesale <^^fl mation, and for many days hundreds bodies were regularly disposed of in t^^H way, and on one Sunday 1000 were bui^^f In Hong Kong (British colony), owing to disgraceful and inconceivable remissnesa^^H the authorities, nothing was done towa^^fl clearing the harbour of corpses, and, coi^^H quently, they were floating about in M^H dreds, and washing up against the Pig^H wall (what was left of it close to |^H houses, and the stench was sometl^^H fearful. In every direction I turn notl^^J but wreck and ruin meet my eye — he^^H whole block of houses blown down ; tHI the side of a house blown in. car J^^H a house in the place had a whole roof. . *^^H steamers sank close to the Praya, along^^H what was our wharf. You can form S^^H idea of the state of the atmosphere, force o f wind and sea, when I tell you t^^^J although these vessels struck within 30f^^^R the Praya, and therefore close to the hoi^^H| those who were saved from them did^^H know till the wind was taking off w^^^h they were ! Had the wind lasted two h^^H longer, Hong Kong would have been a of ruins.' I need not recount how my fri<^^^H own house was blown nearly to atoms, J^^H I came to the conclusion that I would a^H^H as soon live in Melbourne as in during the typhoon months." _Jr^^^^^^A a His Jobioal I— Vide "Sfc^Repor^^H Awards, New^Zealand Exhibition . J^H J. A. Ewen, J. ButtedT W orth T C Sk^^^^l "So far as the Oojfbny is 'concerned^M dyeing of material i a a l moa t en tirel^^H nned_toJ&fc-T5 < -uyeing of Articles of'^^H and! Upholstery, a most useful art, for ar ?J many kinds of m * teri al that lose^^H coloour before the texture is half worn^^H Hii^sch, of Dunedin (Dunedin Dye wfl^|H Geqirge street, opposite Royal George iJ^^H exhibits a case of specimens of dyed Silks, and Feathers, and dyed Sheepi^^^| Ths colours on the whole are very faii^HH reflect considerable credit on the Exhi^^^fl to whom the Jurors recommended an J^^^| rary Certificate should be award 3d " rary Certificate, 639 : Gustav' h|^^| Dunedin, for Speoimen of Dyeing jn^^H Feathers, &o.