Eruption On

Niuafoou

Crops Destroyed But No Lives Lost

AFTER a delay of two months, we have received information about the eruption on volcanic Niuafoou (Tin Can Island) at the end of September, There was no loss of life but there was widespread damage to food crops and vegetation.

The island is part of the Kingdom of Tonga. Mr. C. W. T. Johnson, British Agent and Consul for Tonga, visited the island before the disturbance had died down and the following is his report on conditions there: — “With the exception of the coconuts and an occasional mango tree all the foliage on the island that I was able to see, and even the grass, was browned and withered. The breadfruit trees, which were carrying heavy crops of immature fruit, had not one green leaf and all the root crops had been similarly destroyed.

“The main cause of this was the heavy deposits of salt which had fallen with the rains. It rained fairly steadily while I was on the island and the rain was still quite salt to taste. A certain amount of damage had also been done by the deposits of sulphur and ash. Although this eruption was stated to be less severe than the one of 1926, the wind in 1926 was blowing off the island, whereas this time it was blowing in the opposite direction, right across it.

“There was one main eruption followed by three subsidiary ones, all of them being concentrated in a comparatively small area some two miles from the south shore of the island and close to the scene of previous eruptions.

“Our ship passed about a mile from the shore and we had a grandstand view of an unforgettable sight. Masses of molten lava, glowing red even in the daylight, were being thrown up 150 to 200 feet into the air, while at the water’s edge was an enormous column of smoke rising thousands of feet from what appeared to be a new submarine erup tion. It was no doubt in this column of smoke that the salt deposits were car ried into the air, to be brought down again with the rains.

“It wag at night, however, when we again passed close by, that we learned what a volcanic eruption really looked like. There were the four main explo sions of glowing lava, with fires burning at innumerable points in the surround ing country, and the main flow of lava moving to the sea in a red-hot mass.

“But the most arresting sight at night was the immense, billowing column of smoke with its red glow at the centre, and its vivid blue streaks of what looked like fork lightning flashing continuously hundreds of feet up in the air.”