PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 882
Eastern,
No. 58.
ACTING GOVERNOR H. E. H. JERNINGHAM to LORU KNUTSFORD. (Received June 1, 1892.)
(No. 207.) MY LORD,
Government House, Mauritius, May 10, 1892. Ir is my most painful duty to inform you that a hurricane of unprecedented violence burst over this island on the 29th of April last, and while destroying property
to an amount which must be reckoned in millions of rupees, has put an end to the hope of realising this year the finest cane crop that the island had raised for many years past.
2. I have not been able as yet to gather full and absolutely reliable reports as to loss of life and property throughout the island owing to the breakdown of all the telegraphic wires, the blocking of every road, and the magnitude of the disaster, but, from such data as I already possess, I must endeavour to convey to your Lordship some idea of the extent of the mischief done.
3. I enclose, for your Lordship's information, a copy of the meteorological reports of Dr. Meldrum, C.M.G., Director of the Observatory, which may give you some notion of the violence of the storm, though it may be remarked that the storm centre did not pass over the western portion of Pamplemousses, where the Observatory is situated, but at a point six miles away from it, travelling across the island on an E.S.E. course.
4. You will notice that previously to the 29th April last, when the barometer fell to 27.961 inches at sea level, the lowest barometric pressure known in Port Louis was 28:000 inches on the 1st March, 1818, and that as far as is known, viz., from 1757 to the present year, there has never been a hurricane in Mauritius between the 12th of April and the 1st December, and only two instances on record, until the present one, of a cyclone having approached the island from the north.
5. These exceptional storm indications likewise explain how the velocity of the wind reached the hitherto unknown rate of speed of 96 miles an hour when its direction at 1 p.m., was N.E. by E., and 112 at 4 p.m., when after the passage of the centre the
wind was S.W.
6. The havoc wrought by a storm of this violence defies description, and it will be some time before it can be exactly determined how many lives were lost, and how many were wounded through its effects.
7. The number of persons killed, or who have died from wounds received during the cyclone, amounts, at the date of writing, to 1,090, of whoin 282 were unidentified." All these have been properly and decently buried, viz., 598 in Port Louis, and 492 in the country districts.
8. In regard to the sick and wounded who are at present patients in the public hospitals, and whose admission has been caused by the effects of the cyclone, the total amount up to date is 1,260, of whom 190 are put down as sick and 1,070 as wounded. Of these, 944 are being cared for in the hospitals of the town, and 316 in the district hospitals. The Protestant Cathedral of St. James, though much dainaged, has by permission of the Bishop been turned into a hospital. So have the Municipality, the Freemason's Hall, and a portion of the premises of the Albion Dock.
9. Churches and chapels have suffered to an unusual extent. Sixteen Catholic, two Protestant, and two Presbyterian places of worship are utterly destroyed, while ten Catholic and four Protestant churches are unroofed and seriously shaken. There are but a dozen churches in all that have escaped without serious damage. The palace of the Catholic Archbishop is almost in ruins, and that of the Anglican Bishop will have to be rebuilt. The Government buildings have greatly suffered, but the Royal College is a mass of ruins, and with the exception of the bare walls of some of the wings, every- thing has been crushed to atoms, though I understand that the library has since been saved. The Supreme Court buildings, the Central Prison, the Registration Office, the Institute and Museum, the New Prisons at Beau Bassin, the Barkly Asylum, Le Reduit, and two. Government Lazarets, have had their roofs partially blown off, and have been otherwise considerably injured.
10. In the harbour, almost every ship went adrift or ashore, and much damage was done, but happily none of it was irretrievable. The lightship was dismasted, and all the port tugs, launches, and lighters were rendered useless, but I am glad to say matters are already assuming a better aspect.
U 78831.
• Not printed.
60.-10/99. G. 28. Wt. 4581. E. & 8.
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