THE GREAT ERUPTION

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 87, 11 April 1906, Page 5

THE GREAT ERUPTION

SUBSIDENCE OF CRATEB.

SOME TERRIBLE DISASTERS

GREAT LOSS OF LIFE.

(tSy XJable.—Press Association.— Copyright.*

(Received 9.14 a.mi]e

POME, 'April 10. Latest news from Naples shows that Vesuvius has ceased expelling rocks, but that .the emissions of sand from the crater have increased. Thick darkness prevails in the district, and coastal navigation is almost at a- standstilL Such vast quantities of ashes have fallen over Naples that an immense quantity of matter is weighing upon the roofs of public, and other buildings. During the day the rqof of the market collapsed owing to an immense accumulation of ashes. Seven persons were killed instantaneously, and seventy were more or less seriously injured. So great has the eruption been that the principal crater of Vesuvius has sunk"62o feet below its former level. The pressure of sand on the roofs caused the houses and church at San Giuseppe, two miles to the north-east of the summit of the volcano, to collapse, with the loss of 200 lives. Fifty of the bodies were subsequently recovered. The rain of ashes has destroyed the estates throughout the San Giuseppe district. Several fatalities have occurred at Otfajano, one and a-half miles to the north-west of San Giuseppe. Some boys trod on a morass of cooling lava, and were- engulfed. Ashes on the railway at Portici, on the Naples side of Vesuvius, derailed the train. Barricades have been erected to prevent the lava from reaching Pompeii. The King and Queen of Italy, at great personal risk, passed through the devastated villages in a motor car, amidst a gale of whirling cinders and sand. They spoke words of comfort to the sufferers.

The activity of the volcano is now diminishing, but the .discharge of balls of fire and showers of sand continues.