FIJI NEWS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2864, 30 May 1882, Page 2

FIJI NEWS.

-»■ DESTRUCTIVE HURRICANE IN THE SOUTH SEAS. [By Telegraph.] Auckland, May 29. By the arrival of the Taiuroa, files of Fiji newspapers to the 20th are to hand. The “ Fiji Times ” gives tho following additional particulars of tho recent hurricane :—By the arrival of the ketch Patience from Tonga, fuller particulars are to hand of the severe hurricane which has devastated a portion of that group. Captain Castles reports that a hurricane occurred on the 25th, but that it was Vavau and not Tonga, which experienced its fullest violence. The barque lost off the former coast was the Don Guillamo, Captain Johnston, who with all his officers and six seamen were drowned when the vessel went down. Five boys were saved. The wreck now lies in thirty fathoms of water, Tho hurricane was accompanied by a tidal wave, fifteen feet high, which swept over the island and did terrible damage. It destroyed tho storehouse of Messrs McArthur and Co. of Auokland, which contained over 300 tons copra awaiting shipment. All the houses of the natives and many European constructions were carried away. Cocoa nut trees were snapped off like pipe stems, and the island presents a scone of widespead dissolution. Tho John Wesley, Captain Doncaster, from Sydney to Varan, had twenty-five passengers on board, most of whom were Europeans. She got to Hayti about five hours before tho hurricane began. She had a fearful rough passage, and had three of her boats smashed to pieces at tho davits, but reached port without more serious damage. The hurricane is said to have been the worst ever experienced in that group. At Tongatibu all the churches wore destroyed, and 2000 houses iovoliod,

together with the stores and copra houses, with all their contents. The sea completely swept away a schooner, which was carried inland. A German barque, the Cassils, foundered.