Ml Lamington Still

Erupting

More Victims Identified

Prom Our Own Correspondent

Port Moresby, April 1.

FOUR more European victims of the Mt. Lamington eruption on January 21 have been found at the Sangara Mission. The bodies of Mrs. Taylor and three of the Taylor children were dis covered on the mission grounds by a member of the Anglican Mission staff, the Rev. Sidney Smith, on January 29.

Mrs. Taylor was the wife of Father Den nis Taylor who was terribly burned during the eruption and died a few hours later.

The body of the fourth Taylor child was found in the Mission residence by the first official search party into the area on January 23.

The only other European victim at the Sangara Mission, Miss Barbara de Bibera was found on the same day.

Nineteen European victims have now been found and identified; five more bodies have been recovered . but not identified, and 10 have yet to be located.

Including Father Taylor, 35 Europeans lost their lives in the disaster. The latest available figures on the native death roll is 3,466.

The difficult task of finding the Euro pean victims has been complicated by the fact that the volcano is still intermit tently active, and search parties can only enter the area when the seismic record indicates a period of relative inactivity.

The original road into Sangara Mission and Higaturu is completely closed by the huge washout at the Amboga River cross ing, and again by the tremendous ash beds and extensive gouging of the upper crossing near Higaturu. An alternative route over a wartime jeep track has been apened, but travel over it is difficult and slow. This all has to be taken into account when assessing the risk to work lag parties should the mountain suddenly ?rupt while they were in the area.

Twice since the original eruption there have been quite serious “blows,” with pumice dust blacking out great stretches of country for several hours. One on March ) blotted out daylight right to Oro Bay an the coast, and the rivers originating an the Lamington slopes frequently flood after heavy rains. There has been some levastation of village food gardens in areas not affected by the January erup ion, and the re-settlement of native ommunities, evacuated from just beyond he blast area, is still dependent on the ’uture activity of the volcano.

Two very experienced officers, District Commissioners Sidney Elliott-Smith, and John Foldi, with the former at Popen letta, and the latter at the Oro Bay wacuation camp, have been working on he problem. It is understood that Mr. ?oldi will not be at Oro Bay very long as he is to be temporarily transferred to District Services head office at Port Moresby during the absence of Mr. M. C. iV. Rich, Acting Assistant Director, on ong leave. Meanwhile, Mr. Foldi’s normal vork as District Commissioner at Samarai s being carried on by the A.D.0., Mr.

D. F. Neilsen.

Sir Maynard Hedstrom and Mrs. Dun ;an Hedstrom have returned to Fiji from a holiday visit to New Zealand.

Dr. E. D. Pridie, Chief Medical Officer )f the Colonial Office, arrived in Fiji on 5, in the course of a visit of in fection to Colonial Territories.