RUAREHU AND THE WANGAEHU RIVER.

-' to Tftk uuiTOtt. | Sir,— As a specimen of "utter 'rot;" it would be hard to beat a paragraph is .the "Yeoman" of June 7, for which, apparently a SCr B. C.^ Bruce C^fcoereilie may be) is responsible. The para"graph oonsists of eight clauses, and everyone of thes.e contains a mis-state-ment. Clause 1: 'Tor many years the Wangaehu has been heavily surcharged with a mineral which apparently comes from Buapehn." The facts Me:— For over seven years the Wangaehu has been fresh, except on, a few occasions for two or three days at a time. What is called 1 by Mr B. C. Bruce "a mineral." is. several "minerals," notably alum, sulphate of iron, and sultraate •of alumina. -These" minerals did not ;only'"apparently" come from Buapehu : they did come from that mountain, the two streams which brought them down meeting at the foot of a spur (consisting of black' pumice' or scoria, containing sulphur in every crevice) called "The Black Bock." Clause 2: "Its. effect, on the water, wssjsifch that horses which drank itTOvtefiaeeji known .to^'die.".' The.factg{aief2i,Ex^ept in the reaches quite near the source, therewas never any quantity of minerals in the water sufficient to be injurious, and that occurred only at' rare times, at which times horses would be very unlikely to drink it, on account of its unpleasant flavour. , Yon can't prove a negative, but I should like to know •Mr-»R. 13: ; Brack's; authority, for ; the ?hor»e yarn. fDlausS J: "lately .. . •the mineral has been,tnuohiless<in evidence." The. fact, i»:-£Tfit> £haa notrbeentin evidence at wl since the eruption of Buapehu on March 10, 1896. Clause 4: "A few years ago fish could not live in the waters of the river; to-day there are all kinds of fish there." The facts are: —There are some trout in three of the tributaries of the 'Wangaehu, but not (so far as I have heard) in the river itself, though probably they will „ work. down. .But kinds of. fi.hU" .Inanga and patUri 'have* found their way up some fifty miles, during the last three or four yean, and kahawai and aua always, did frequent the tidal part of the river. But "all kinds of fish!" I should .like to see them. Clause 5: "Members of the ' (Wellington Acclimatisation) Society were interested to learn that the Wangaehu ... is becoming wellstocked." So am I. Clauses 6, 7, and 8: "The,, cause , of . the peculiar condition of the water in the Wangaehu River is believed to have been an outbreak of some kind, up Taupo way, , where, the river has its source: On that occasion, a glacier of some kind _ descended the river and carried away -the bridge. That was over 30 years ago, and the river has , been strongly 'impregnated with sulphur ever since,' so much so, that stock -would not drink the water." The facts are:—Fortythree years ago (not thirty years), /'on the 13th December, 1859, a flood in .the Wangahu carried away the bridge, only recently erected. . . . Great quantities of ice and debris of all kinds were carried to the sea," 117 miles from the crater-lake of Buapehu. It certainly was not "a glacier which descended 'the river 'and carried away the bridge.'.' It might have been an 'avalanche, though it is far more likely that the flood was caused by an eruption of Buapehu in 1859, as similar floods were caused by the eruptions of 1889 and 1895, after the^ latter .of which the river was for several' day* a mere sludge channel. As to "stock not drinking the water," that possibly might have been trueprior to 1896 within a few miles of the mountain; but so far&om stock refusing to drink the water of the .lower ports of the river, they liked it, and were -benfited by it. In 1862 and since, sheep 'which were troubled with rot used to be paddocked on the Wangaehu Biver fiats, and the sand and gravel (impregnated with the minerals) cured their feet. Some ten or twelve years ago, when Mr Munro was sheep inspector, I was informed that he rented a paddock on the Wangaehu into which he put lambs infested with lung-worm. The water was found so curative that Mr Bobertson, of Papaiti, had some of it analysed, and then (obtaining the necessary chemicals) put a solution of the minerals into a trough in a paddock in which he kept lung-wormy lambs. If "stock would not drink the water," what was the good of that? I think, sir, I have proved that the paragraph criticised is as full of "rot" as the feet of the sheep that' used to be sent 'to the sand shoals of the Wangaehu.— l am, etc., . '■ \ GEO. PBED. ALLEN.

The matron of the Jubilee Home 'desires to acknowledge, with thanks J illustrated papers from St. John's Club and from Mr j. Lett. •»-»*. Captain' Edwin/ wired at 1 JB,,p.m. to-day: — Strong winds from between north-east and east and south-east after 16 hours from now; 'glass fall; tides good; much rain. '''■ " ' ' Some bitter complaints have been made to us to-day concerning a black bull being allowed to wander about the roads near Sedgebrook, to the danger, especially, of ladies and children who have to use the road. Our complainants say, also, that this same animal is frequently seen at nights a.t large on these same roads, and that sooner or later a- serious accident will happen, if this, Idnd of thing is allowed to go on. The finger should we to this,