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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7664, 15 June 1886, Page 4

Further examination of the scone of the volcanic eruption has enabled our special reporters to determine more accurately the seat of disturbance. There now seems little doubt that the focus of eruptive action was in the space lying between and including Tarawera mountain and Rotomahana lake, and extending in a southerly direction towards the Paeroa range. But, amidst all the destructive energy that has been there at work, the far-famed Terraces seem to have escaped. One of our reporters says that he saw the Pink Terrace for a short time ; and, though it was covered with ashes, he believed the structure to be otherwise uninjured. From this point of observation he does not appear to havo commanded an equally distinct view of the White Terrace ; but he has felt warranted in concluding that it also has survived the convulsion in its immediate vicinity, and says, " I do not think the Terraces have broken down." The quiescence which has gradually come over the whole eruptive area, and the diminished volume of smoke and steam admitted of a closer inspection, and this has led to the establishing of a strong presumption that the Terraces, to the great delight of all the thousand.; of visitors to whom they were the chief source of attraction, have come safely out of the fiery ordeal. From these, therefore, the puolic anxiety may now be wholly transferred to the disastrous effects which the districts more remote from the scene of volcanic activity have experienced. By all accounts these have been most severe in the Bay of Plenty district. The complete destruction, for the present at least, of the grazing capacity of the whole country between Opotiki and Tauranga by the deposit of ashes, constitutes for the country the most serious part of the calamity. The flocks and herds of the settlers are dying in great numbers, and the total loss of them is being avoided only by their removal to other districts, or by shipping them off to the market as rapidly

as facilities of transit will admit. This means all but ruin for a large body of industrious colonists, and their case is such as to demand the immediate aid, both of the Government and the whole of the population who hare been fortunate in escaping the direct consequences of this disaster. We make no doubt that both the Legislature and the colonists individually will rise to the occasion, and by a generous effort diminish, as far as may be in their power, the losses which have suddenly overtaken so many of their fellow-creatures.