In 1882 he was briefly a tax collector in Vosges, then in 1885 he was Director of the Interior, second in command to the governor, in Tahiti and then in Nouméa.
[4] On 1 December 1885, he became acting governor of French Polynesia in place of Marie Nicolas François Auguste Morau.
Both the mayor and the governor were absent, so Moracchini took charge and directed the firefighters of Saint-Pierre and the army in saving as much as possible of the city.
[4] Moracchini managed to secure credits from metropolitan France to rebuild infrastructure and restore the economy.
The government refused to provide a requested million-franc loan or to suspend the island's debt, but did help organize donations to help the hurricane victims.
The white owners were in contact with the American consul, waiting for a chance to ask the United States to intervene.
Moracchini steered a middle road, refusing to take actions that would make him the "dupe or accomplice of the reactionaries", and restored calm, although he made himself unpopular with both sides.