TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9159, 8 March 1910, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Matters in connection with the Grey Street saleyards have The been advanced another Saleyards. stage. The recent decision of the Council to arrange a conference with the local auctioneering firms was carried into effect yesterday, when representatives of the firms met the Public Works Committee. During the discussion that took place Mr R. S. Abraham, as will be noticed by a report in another column, materially strengthened the auctioneers' objection to the concreting of the cattle pens. In support of the contention that concrete was injurious to the beasts, Mr Abraham was able to show that at the Diuiediti abattoirs loud complaints are made by the butchers against the concrete floors owing to the cattle slipping and bruising themselves badly, and as the result of representations the Council has decided to hold a meeting to decide upon a suitable substitute for concrete. No stronger argument than the foregoing is needed against the concreting of the Grey Street yards. If. however, it is insisted upon by the Council, the auctioneers state very plainly that it is their intention to remove to an adjoining town where a second Addington market will be established. If their decision is carried out it will be a great blow to commerce in Palmerston, and the Council would require the strongest reasons for compelling them to take that course. The auctioneers should be encouraged to remain in the town instead of moving out, and we hope the report of the Health Officer will induce the Council to reverse its decision. Considerable discussion has followed upon the suggestion by The Lost Warbrick, the wellTerraces, known guide, that the pink and white terraces at Rotomahana were not, as generally believed, destroyed in the eruption at Tarawera on June 10, 1886, and that they still exist under a great depth of mud. Mr Percy Smith, formerly Surveyor-General, and others qualified to speak on the subject, say that there is nothing hi Warbrick's theory, and that there is no shadoAv of doubt the Terraces were destroyed. Their opinions are supported by Mr E. Phillips Turner, a well-known North Island surveyor, who has written to the Post on the subject. Mr Turner says:—"l am not aware what views Sir James Hector held as regards the Terraces; but I know that Professor A. P. W. Thomas, the late Professor Hutton, Mr Percy Smith, F.G.S., and Mr J. Martin, F.G.S. (all of whom knew the locality before the eruption, and explored and reported on it after the eruptidn) were convinced that the Terraces were destroyed. In Mr Smith's report there is a picture which shows the site of the original lakelet and the Terraces to be occupied by an immense pit extending approximately east and west about three and a-half miles, and roughly a mile and a half wide. The location of this immense hiatus was not merely guesswork, as Mr Smith had surveyors making topographical surveys. Mr Josiah Martin showed me a photo he had taken of the locality round the Terraces before the eruption, and another taken from the same spot a few weeks after the eruption; in the latter the site of the Terraces is shown to be an awful chasm. Mr Blocmfield, the artist, knew the Terraces intimately, and had paintings of them. Paintings made by him after the eruption show this chasm in the place where the Terraces formerly were." After a reference to surveys at Tarawera and Rotomahana, Mr Turner says, assuming the Terraces were not destroyed, what condition would they be in? The Terraces were formed of hydrated oxide of silicon (sinter). The beauty of their surface was maintained by the constant flowing over them of boiling siliceous w\ai!fl|r, which was continuously depositing a new but thin coating of silica. This action ceased, and the Terraces have been buried under volcanic ejecta and several feet of water for twenty-four years. "What do you expect to find after you have exposed them by bailing out Rotomahana ? A sight not very beautiful, I am afraid. If the sinter has not already been partially decomposed (which would be probable) it will be necessary to take up a few thousand gallons of hydrofluoric acid to put a new polish on the Terraces." It is to be hoped, says Mr Turner, the Government will not (in these hard-up times, at least) be persuaded to spend money on any fantastic search for the lost Terraces of Rotomahana.