(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) AUCKLAND. 5th December.

Evening Post, Volume XV, Issue 286, 6 December 1877, Page 2

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) AUCKLAND. 5th December.

Moko Hinou is a small group of four or five islands about twenty-five miles due east of Wangarei Heads, eight or nine miles east of the group of rocks called the " Hen and Chickens. ' - Some alarm and more incredulity were excited last night in town when it was known that Captain Macfarlane and several of the crew and passengers of the Rotorua had on passing the islands seen a cloud of white smoke ascending* from the largest of the group in exactly the same manner that smoke issues from a volcano just about to burst forth. The column of smoke was much greater than that which would be caused by an ordinary fire. Captain Macfarlane, his chief officer, and .Captain Ross, late of the cutter Ringleader, all are of opinion that it was caused by a volcanic commotion, but it is against this theory, though not conclusively subversive of it, that Moko Hinou is not of volcanic formation. The islands comprising tho group are all low ground, the highest hill not being much more than a hundred feet above the sea level. The islands are right in the fairway of vessels entering the port of Auckland from the north. A series of dynamite experiments has been instituted by Mr. Thomson, agent for Nobel's Explosive Company, Glasgow. Three-quarters of a pound of dynamite blew a ton of cast iron to pieces. The boss of a propeller, weighing half a ton, was blown to pieces by half a pound of dynamite. Messrs. Fraser and Tinne will use dynamite in future at their works.