LAKE TAUPO LANDSLIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14326, 23 March 1910, Page 8

LAKE TAUPO LANDSLIP.

THE PREVIOUS DISASTER. A SURVIVOR'S STORY. FULFILMENT OF A PROPHECY. j Some interesting information 'regarding the historic 'landslide which occurred on the foreshore of Lake Taupo in 1846, and wiped out the Maori village To Rap* and its inhabitants, is given by Mr. J. Cowan, of the Tourist Department, in a pamphlet entitled "Lake Taupo and the Volcanoes," which was published in 1901. Te Rapa, as stated in yesterday's issue, occupied practically the 6iimo site as the ill-fated village Waihi, which was destroyed by a similar landslide on Sunday morning last. "On the Tokuanusideof the Waihi settlement," writes Mr. Cowan, "a green expanse, a little above the level, of the surrounding land, marks Te Rapa, the last resting-place of some 50 members of the Ngatituwharetoa tribe, who met a sudden and awful death in 1846, with their famous high chief, the great Te Heuheu. Away up above on the green hillside of Hipaua innumerable white jets and columns of steam rise into the air from the fissured, hot and quaking earth. Here a rapid stream,, the Wai-mataii, which rises up in the Kakaramea Range at the back of Tokaanu, runs into the lake. Some years before the great historical landslip at To Rapa, the Wai-mataii was dammed up by landslips, and a deep pond was formed. In 1846 a new slip came down from the rotten slopes of Hipaua and raised the level of the dam. The water rose and gradually cut a channel .-through, the soft mud and earth. The danger to tho quiet village below must have been noticed, yet none stirred till it was too late. The end came one dark and stormy night, when the earth barrier gave way, and a great flood of water and a murderous avalanche of mud, rocks, and trees came down ...on: the sleeping Rapa kainga. '"'■% ; :_ »'.•; "We will let one of the survivors of the catastrophe toll the tale. -This is the venerable, white-haired Tokena te Kerehi, a deeply-tattooed old relic of the long-gone cannibal days, and who is still (1901) living at Waihi. Tokena was a teina (a younger brother) of the great Te Heuheu, and is grand-uncle to the present head, chief of Taupo, Te Heuheu Tukino. He says he was grown-up and fully, tattooed (both on the face and on the ■-. body—he. rape), at the : time of the great landslide. Sitting '.[ in the shade of his raupo house at Waihi, the old man said : ' "•-•> " Yes, 0 friend, I remember that night of blackness and death! I was a young and active man then, but I was not a heathen at that time. '■ I was converted to the Roman Catholic . faith, and I was ii: my hous,» reading my prayer-book when the mountain and the river came down upon j us. 1, You must know, 0 pakcha, that there .was - a certain prophecy! made concerning Te Heuheu, my relative, who was killed there. Pahau, "the sacred high priest of the \tribe," stood forth in the marae one day, and said: "Te Heuheu .will not die by the .hand, of man !" You must > learn too, that away np yqndcr, where; the steam vises on Hipaua, there lived - a dreaded taniwha, which monrter was, like the river, known by the dreaded name of Wai-mataii. Now, whether that taniwha loosened the earth or what, destruction fell upon ; our kainga. ; On that night there was a thunderstorm/ and the ;great i Heuheu/•■ the -sacred high" chief, the " Ariki" of, the tribe, went forth; to quell the "-• spirits of the . earth and sky. He mounted to the top of his whare. bearing the famous greenstone mere "Pahiknuro" . —the very same which now I hold in my handand he recited his potent incantations (karakia), , the karakia known as :' Kurnki whakatahaj" and others. Thus :he called '-'upon, the "gods of the. Maori, and then he went back to his ■} wives in the ■whare. '• ' ' , . ' *"' After a while I went outside my house..j The. night was black and ominous; not a | star shone forth, but Hie lightning flashed brightly. Then < suddenly up above on j the .Wai-mataii, I. heard loud, sharp re- ; ports jas of thunder. .It was the earthmonster, at work! A; The : reports sounded again. Then all at once the ' whole hill--1 side came i down. 'j: Water and mud, and rocks, and great trunks of totara and other > trees > came sweeping down in . a mighty mass. My heart sank within me, and .1 • was knocked oyer ;and bruised by the earth and trees. I heard cries jof alarm; and 1 saw horses and fences \ over- ( whelmed. * 'if. I i found myself : rlore to . the edge of the lake, ; andf; there" I climbed tip on to the? top of a tree, which was used as:a- Maori (a native swing) by the young ' people; "-% I sat there in fear and trembling till the daylight' came, and then wept and tangi'd v over my lost tribe, for, the village was buried. All had gone! There was no time for the Vsleepers to escape. : I and Hoarii, were the only two who were saved. Thus was Pahau the priest's prophecy fulfilled. Te - Heuheu died not bys the hand of man; it. was the work of ; the gods.''- , ■ ■-■'■' - " ;.-'"' " "This and. much more said the tattooed ancient. . He. ! , told how, the venerable sil-ver-haired '■'. Te ' Heuhe. was killed by' he avalanche while endeavouring to get his .household to:escape, and how: the griefstricken .-tribe assembled after the affair and, dug }' down till .they.-. discovered the grand old chief's bod v. Near by him, lay the corpse of his favourite wife, who had the precious greenstone mere pahikaure .'clasped to her breast. ' She was overwhelmed t while endeavouring to save the talismanic heirloom of the tribe. Of the inhabitants of the kainga, 54 were killed, : and only two (or at most three) were,saved.',' *«., ..•;.:-. ■..' - '. A MISSIONARY'S NARRATIVE. ; THE LAST RITES. ; ■ The following is an extract from the diary of the late Rev. Richard Taylor relative to the landslide of 1846: —"After service, Herekeikei took me to Te Rapa, where I went to bury the dead. When we were about half-a-mile from Tc.Raps' I noticed that the lake was still discoloured with the vast quantity of mud which had flowed into it. We landed a little beyond tho site of the pa. The entire valley now prefents nearly a level surface, being rather the highest in the centre, and sloping from the mountain to the lake. It is one mass of mud. with here and there a fragment of a tree protruding. The stream which flowed through the centre of the valley, which formerly was the lowest part, now flows on one side, and falls over a cliff, about 12ft high, and forms a considerable cascade. The mass of mud was at first more than twice it/; present height. It may be dill '.10ft' in places, but at the fides it is not more than 4ft deep, and is about Bft where Hcniheni's house stood. Had he fled 6vds to the left he would have escaped. The only vestige remaining is a tail pole, which, though standing on much lower ground than the pa, strange to say, escaped, and the turf near it is t4ill green: The avalanche went on either side of it. "The place- is now made 'tapu,' but not the slightest opposition was offered to my going on it. I went on the muddy plain as far as the supposed situation of Tamati Waka'.s house, accompanied by Wiremu. We sank up to the ankle in places. I red the burial service over him and others ;still entombed in their houses, and afterwards amended to the grave of Abraham, a Port Nicholson chief, whoso bodv was recovered and buried. There I also read the service; the rest of our party standing at a distance. Having performed this last melancholy office, we returned to Tokaanu. Herekeikei says that -part of 'the mountain, which may be 1000 ft above the level of the lake, and "three miles distant, fell first;, probably the day before, and my present impression ■ is, that by stopping . tip the course of the stream it formed a small lake, which, when it attained a certain size and strength, swept away its barriers, and carried all be- ; fore it. ; bringing ruin to the little valley of Te Rapa. Herekeikei pointed out the site of a more ancient pa nearer his village, which was in like manner overwhelmed some 12 years ago.* ' :* • '■• -.•'•; .'. ■ ■~-;'".f- J-; :,' -: s. ■■-..-; - '■''"' ",v- : .. 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