SULPHUR ISLAND.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 76, 10 April 1877, Page 3

SULPHUR ISLAND.

Sulphur, or White Island, on the coast of the North Island contains about 600 acres, abounding in sulphur in every_ stage of purity and development. It is the property of Mr. J. A. Wilson and Mr. F. H. Troup. These gentlemen are now engaged in perfecting arrangements for the export of the sulphur to Australia, to India, and to China, «is well as for the supply of the home market in New Zealand. The quantity of sulphur used in New Zealand alone is 150 tons per annum, worth about £22 per ton, or £3000 in all. The Australian Colonies consume over £20,000 worth per annum, while the consumption in China and in India is immense. The export, when fairly stored, may reach considerable proportions. White Island is one of the finest sights in New Zealand, and it may be said the finest of its kind anywhere. There is nothing even at the famous Eotomahana to [equal it. The height of the island is over 900 feet, and it forms an immense crater, of which the floor, slightly elevated above the sea level, forms a plain ot a hundred acres. The walls of the crater are sheer precipices, varying in altitude from 500 to 900 feet. Through these walls the sea has broken its way in the ages past in two or three places. Large gaps have thus been made to the south and east, affording level approaches from the beach to the crater. The crater is in full activity, and in the middle there is a beautiful lake, ever changing its. hue with the action and reaction of the subterranean forces below and around it. Wreaths of vapour and curtains of smoke, assuming all colors and fantastic shapes, ascend from the Plutonic furnaces at the edges of the lake. They entrance the gazer with their variety and beauty, and produce an impression not easily erased. The richest deposits of sulphur are on the floors of the crater and round its inner sides. Some of these deposits have been discovered by digging. Others are on the surface. Some are found in beds, denoting the sides of ,ancient craters, in which the ore was sublimated in ages past. Other beds lie just as they were made, fresh, bright, and pure, from Nature's own laboratory. The lake is about 15 acres in area, and about 20ft. deep. Its water is largely impregnated with sulphurous acid. Free sulphur is also to be sometimes seen floating on its waters in large proportion —perhaps 24 per cent, of their volume. The temperature of the lake ranges from warm to boiling, and varies in different parts. The heat is entirely governed by the subterranean action, and—strange as it may seem —this action is in its turn apparently governed by meteorological conditions. In north-easterly weather the volcano is very active, the bottom of the lake is much disturbed, and the sulphur is mixed up more thoroughly with the waters of the lake than in any other weather.

Sufficient ore has been found in the island to employ a refinery night and day for several years. Other beds will doubtless be found as the island is worked. Under the waters of the lake there are many thousand tons of sulphur of the very best quality. This has been proved more than once when the lake has dried up, which it sometimes does. The bottoms and the sides are then fully exposed to view. If necessary the drainage could always be effected easily enough, but the proprietors regard this lake as a sulphur factory in itself, and will religiously preserve it, being contented to avail themselves of its stores when periodically dried up by natural causes. The whole island is, for that matter, continually making sulphur, and is a huge sublimating factory, of which the action and the fumes are evident to passers by when a considerable distance away. The waters of the lake have great healing powers. This has been proved by the few who have tried them. Fish of the finest kind resort to the waters around the island, attracted, probably by the warmth during the colder seasons of the year. The only drawback is the absence of a good harbour, but there is nothing to prevent vessels loading easily and safely, with a little outlay to provide the means of doing so. The island is uninhabited, but is wi.thin easy reach of Tauranga.