The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-08-22
Most Violent Storm Experienced
There in Years.
THE HALLS ROUGH PASSAGE.
Made PunaIuu by Guaging Time-Pas-
sengers Could Not Land-Nlr. Searle
Shoots at the Wrong Game-DOllo-
way Denies a Slander, Etc, Etc.

BY the steamer w. G. Hall yesterday
was received a letter from a resident of
Kau, who gives full account of the
recent severe storm in that district. 1t
is published in full below:
"The Rain God you gave us a story
tiser has been getting in some very
good work and it all came about in this
peculiar way:
"As you are aware, we were having a
very severe drought here in Kau, and
things were in a desperate state when
John Searle of Hilea, who was getting
very short of water at the mill, took his
wife and went up into the mountains
for the purpose of shooting cattle ESQ
he said). He fetched up in the vicinity
of the Rain God, but the old uncanny
witch who frequents the place was not
present. Wishing to try his rife before
shooting at cattle, he drew several
beads on the Rain God.
'FWell, on Saturday night and Sun
day morning, August 18th and 10Th, Kau
had one of the most severe storms of
rain, lightning and thunder. 1t was
something terrible. The lightning we
had was the worst seen here even by
one seemed to be safe, as it played all
around our houses.
Between Naalehu and Pahala seven
teen poles were struck and seven were
smashed to pieces, disabling the whole
system and setting people to wonder
when the end would come Several of
the instruments were likewise slightly
injured.
Joseph Pritchard deserves great
credit for his promptness in getting to
work on the repairing of the lines
you will be given some idea of the
business like work of the storm when I
tell you that at Naalehu three inches
of rain fell in one hour, and at other
places seven inches in six hours. There
was simply just one binding sheet of
water for several hours, continuous in
its downpour.
'Pahala and the other Kau planta-
tions have been crying for water Well,
they've got ii, but in a somewhat more
violent form than they anticipated
''The natives in the district say that
Kaamanu was angry at Mr.. Searle for
daring to fire upon her, and that he
tried to wash him out. Reports give it
out that he was nearly drowned at one
time. 1t seems Kaamanu had expert
ence with the gentleman before.
Some two years ago ME. Searle
knocked off piece of Kaamanu's head
as he wanted to compare the rock with
some others, having made claim that
the Rain God was composed of strange
kind of lava He came nearly paying
dear for it, as Hiela was nearly washed
out Tons upon tons of rocks were
washed through his beautiful garden,
some of them weighing a tone alone
The natives told him at the time that
Kaamanu was seeking vengeance.
THE w. G. Hall experienced one of
the worst storms she has ever had since
starting on the Kona and Kau route.
While coming up along the Kona coast
delightful weather was met with. Cap
tain SimeTson was notified from Kau
that it was very rough along this coast.
LAS he approached South Point he
saw no indications of storm, and con-
cluded there must have been some mis-
take about the telephone message. But