Page:Hunt - The climate and weather of Australia - 1913.djvu/127

Rh yards away. One well-found house of four large rooms and verandah all round was shifted 52 feet. Another 3 feet would have put it over the hill. A new two-story concrete house was cut in half, the upper portion going."

Apparently the hurricane came down upon the group without any of the usual barometric warnings. Captain Wooley, the harbor-master at Suva, reports that "it was a most extraordinary and most unexpected happening; the barometer showed no signs to speak of, as we often have a very much larger drop than shown on the 24th at 4 p.m. I was on a trip, but put back at 5.30 p.m. owing to the excessive heat, for although we were having a fresh south-east breeze, it was beyond anything I had ever experienced in similar weather. On the evening of the 24th there were no signs of dirty weather, except this heated wind; from 6 to 10 p.m. there was a moderate easterly wind with some rain; at midnight, barometer falling and wind increasing; 2 a.m., barometer 29.000 inches, increasing wind from east with heavy rains; 3 a.m., blowing with hurricane force, house started to go, impossible to venture out, sheets of iron flying from all directions from east to north-east; at 4 a.m., the barometer started to rise and the wind fell; 5 a.m., back to only a north-north-east gale, with heavy torrents of rain." At Suva, the storm was at its maximum about 4 a.m., when the barometer read 28.50 inches; at Levuka, the lowest reading was 28.64; and at Nausori, 28.40. At Levuka, there was a calm of ten minutes or more, then a complete change of wind from south-east to north-west, showing that the eye of the storm passed right over the town, but at Suva there was only a steady easterly blow backing north north-east as the barometer rose.

The storm swept over Bau in Fiji, leaving only four houses out of 100 standing. Hence it pursued a westerly course through the New Hebrides. Here the storm centre passed near the island of Tanna. In Mare, one of the Loyalty Islands, three storm waves destroyed houses and plantations. On Easter Sunday, it swept down on Noumea, New Caledonia. Here small coasting boats, barges, and the steam launch Obus were sunk in the bay of Moselle, and the town of Noumea was considerably damaged. . After passing New Caledonia and recurving to the south-west of the island, the storm pursued a southerly course to Norfolk Island, covering the intervening distance in about 26 hours. Dr. P. Herbert Metcalf, the Deputy Chief Magistrate, reports that the barometer fell to 28.882 inches, with a gale of hurricane violence in the east, but, except to trees and gardens, there was little damage done. No houses or persons were injured. The following are his meteorological notes before and after the passage of the storm:—


 * 28th March, 9.45 p.m.—Barometer, 29.062.