THE TAUPO LANDSLIDE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 69, 22 March 1910, Page 5

THE TAUPO LANDSLIDE.

GREAT RACE FOR LIFE, - {

i .VILLAGE OF WAIHI DESTROYED. .—. (By Telegraph.—Own,Correspondent.) TAUPO. this day. ' Further particulars which have come to hand relative to the great landslip at j the small Maori village of Waihi, on the ' shores of Lake Taupo, show that the disaster occurred at about 9 o'clock on Sunday morning. With a noise like the roar of thunder, the landslide commenced from a point nearly a mile and a naif from the shore of the Lake, and about 1000 ft. above the water's level. The warning sounds brought all the natives of the village tumbling out of their whares, a_d one glance at the rushing, rumbling, roaring mass sufficed to send men, women and children flying in a mad scamper for safety. Several narrow escapes are reported, and, as stated in last night's " Star," one ol the native populace, named Wi Tamaiwhana, was overtaken, and buried alive. A great boulder, which came bounding and crashing down the hillside, struck him in its course, and knocked him down. He managed to get on his feet again, and struggled desper- j ately to renew his flight. By this time, ' however, the main body of the slip was upon him, and he was overwhelmed. For a moment or two his feet were seen sticking out of the boiling mud, and then he was buried under the mountain side. A very narrow escape was experienced by a young woman named Hoko, who just managed to clear the path of the slip, and then sank senseless by the side of the stream. Two boys, who were amongst the last to evacuate the village, had a race for life, and only their fleetness enabled them to reach a point of safety just before the mass of earth went roaring by, and precipitated itself into the lake.

A great upheaval of the waters of tho lake followed, and a wave some 10ft. high washed on to the opposite shore. Some children playing there had a narrow escape, and were only rescued by the efforts of adults present. The wall of water also swept across the Tokaanu wharf, a mile to the -westward, and a youth nameRobinson had a narrow escape. The landslide was in the same track as that of 1546. The whole mountain side is cracked, and further slips' arc considered likely to occur. Walls .are cut out of the country fully 200 ft. deep, and the mud is about 30ft. deep over the Tokaanu to Waihi-road- The village of W-aihl was situated on a level stretch of land along the foreshore of the lake, with a range of hills behind. At the foot of this- range are hundreds of boiling pool. and springs, and it is considered that the recent disaster is due to the hard earth at the foot of the hills having been boiled into a soft consistency, which had to give way with the weight behind it. The last catastrophe of the kind took place in 1546, when the famous chief—to Te Heulieu Tukino, was buried alive with his six wives, and 54 members of hi* tribe. The natives who escaped from the village of Waihi on Sunday are now living i at Pukawa.