THE LOST TERRACES:

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 230, 29 September 1931, Page 6

THE LOST TERRACES:

There is'a revival of the old controversy concerning the fate of the White Terrace and the Pink Terrace, which were the most famous features of Geyserland before the Tarawera eruption in ISSG. Botomahana. Lake was so transformed by the outburst, when the great rift blown in Tarawera Mountain extended down to and right through the lake, that it is difficult for presentday tourists to gather an idea of the original appearance of the place. They boat under the

steaming cliffs near where the Pink Terraces stepped down in lovely stairways to the lake; they are shown where the grey waters have drowned the site of the White Terraces. But the lake is so much larger than the old-time shallow, reedy lagoon, with its two islands, that visitors can only marvel at what lies before their eyes to-day and regret that they were not fortunate enough to behold the sights which so entertained travellers, artists and writers half a century ago.

Surveyors and scientists who inspected Botomahana soon after the eruption came to the conclusion that the tremendous explosions which immediately followed the bursting forth of Tarawera and blew the bottom out of the lake, to rain it down in mud all over the land, had completely destroyed the Terraces. Mr. S. Percy Smith, then chief surveyor in Auckland, who had known Botomahana well before the eruption, expressed that view in his report. But there always have been lingering hopes that at least one. if not both, of the Terraces may not have been hurled up in fragments but. may have been covered up in the mud of the eruption. Mr. Alfred Warbric-k, the chief Government guide, who knows the district more intimately than any man living, is not satisfied with the official and scientific theory. He has been in that tvonderful area of the thermal regions since before the eruption, and he thinks that if the overflooded Botomahana were dewatered to approximately its olden level some of the Terraces might be revealed. Botomahana is considerably more than a hundred feet above the original level, because of the blocking of the pre-eruption channel of exit, the Xaiwaka stream.

The only objection that has been raised to the cutting of a 'channel across the narrow isthmus between Eotomahana and Tarawera Lakes is the possibility of a. flooding -of the Tarawera River, which flows through the Eangitaiki Plain. This contingency, however, is very unlikely; the large lake, Tarawera, would first receive the overflow waters, and the run-off to the plains would be gradual. There is a good deal to be said in favour of the simple engineering work suggested. It would anticipate and prevent any possible sudden rise of level of Eotomahana in the event of the blockage of the present subterranean outlets. A reduction of the warm lake level bv. a hundred feet or so would undoubtedly stimulate geyser action along the shores and* enhance the attractions of Eotomahana for visitors. Even if the Terraces have utterly disappeared the wonders of the place would be increased bv the drainage of the waters which have drowned'some of the thermal areas. In that exceedingly active part of the high shores, where the Pink Terraces stood the chemical agencies which formed them ai e still at work. The steaming cliff face is •bathed in a kind of warm, pinkish glow, the ethereal adumbration of the vanished beautv. The experiment of lowering Potomahana's surface is worth trying; it would cost very little, and it might reveal much of great, interest. ~—3.C.