THE NEW WHITE ISLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15721, 23 September 1914, Page 7

THE NEW WHITE ISLAND.

EFFECTS OF ERUPTION.

FRESH CRATER BURST OPEN.

WRECKAGE OF THE WHARF.

BECK XT HUN'S OF ACTIVITY

[BV IEM'.RAPtf- OWN' correspondent.]

WuaKATAVE, Tuesday

FinTHfR descriptions of the appearance of White 1.-l.md an- given by the police, who \isited Uw island by the steamer Ta'raaii. There are mounds of earth here and there, as though dray-loads of soil had been tipped up. hut with a hard crust. Also dott -vi here and theie on the hard mud flats were circles similar to the Porridge V<->\ at Whakarewarewa. Many of the inks in the sun-baked mud sc-em verv deep, hut i" 1 steam was issuing from them. The landing party went within a few yards id the crater, which now exists in .the renin- of what was formerly the lake, hut occasionally outbursts of steam ann smoke and pieces of rock and ashes compelled (hem to retire. When the Tasjnan was lung to the leeward of the island on Sunday showers oi ashes fell on the deck at intervals. Another indication of severe disturbances having taken place is that the birds have shifted their rookeiies from the western to the northeastern part of the island. There are no traces of the wharf piles, but a good deal of wreckage is lying about the. beach, which would indicate that the structure bad been blown up and washed ashore.

The lady passengers spoke of the explosions which took place on Sunday night as being most wonderful and brilliant. One police officer states he believes iiio hillsides have fallen into the old crater, which became smothered, thus causing the new crater to burst open in the middle of the lake. One piece of rock of about fifty tons weight was hurled on top of a tremendous pile of loose debris, and has sunk down many feet. It is conjectured that this rock fell in the vicinity of the cot ages. Most old Whakatane residents say they have never seen such displays as have taken place during the last three weeks, more especially on Friday week last. It had also been noticed that, though a heavy wind was blowing off shore at that particular time, huge volumes of black smoke ascended perpendicularly gome thousands of feet. Captain Mair, who has seen a good deal of the island during the last 49 years, and who now resides on the hills at Ohopi, near Whakatane, overlooking the island, remarked to a friend when ho saw the display on Friday week last that it was of such magnitude that it was a. good thing no one was living on. the island. He did' not know that the men were working there at the time.

HISTORY OF THE ISLAND

SOME PREVIOUS OWNERS.

TARAWERA ERUPTION.

An interesting review of the history of White Island, and an account of some of the operations carried out there, were sup- j plied to a Herald representative yesterday by .Mr. W. H. Willoughby, managing director of the New Zealand Sulphur Company, the present owners. Prior to 1885. the island was Crown property, and, so far as is known, the b-dphur deposits were not worked up to that time. In the year named, Whit© Island was acquired by an Auckland syndicate, of which Mr. Justice WilsVm was the head. With his son and two or three other persons", Mr. Justice Wilson had the deposits worked, but only on a very small ■scale. This syndicate established works for the production of sulphuric or other acids from the ore at Tauranga, At the time of tho Tarawera eruption, in June, 1686, the works on the island were abandoned in a great hurry by the men working there, owing to the alarm created by .the great upheaval. Afterwards it was said that this alarm was caused by the fact that volcanic dust was spread over the island from the mainland.

Until the recent disaster there ha* been no change in the surface of the island. This was evidenced by a. report written, by the late Mr. W. McCandlish, a mining engineer, formerly of considerable repute in New Zealand, under date of July 3, 1885. This showed that the conditions then existing were exactly similar to those prevailing a fortnight ago.

After the abandonment of White Island by Mr. Justice Wilson's syndicate, it parsed into the ownership of Mr. Andrew Gray, of Auckland, from whom a British Columbian syndicate acquired it. They transferred it to the White Island Sulphur Company, which again, for the purpose of financing the works and development of tlio island, formed the present New Zealand hulphur Company. This is composed of Canadian capitalists, scarcely any shares t>eing held in New Zealand. The capital of tho company is £100,000, of which about £70,000 lias been issued. The vendors took their interests entirely in deferred shares. Tho cash capital was provided wholly in preferred shares. The present owners of the island commenced installing their plant about a year ago. the Whit* Island Sulphur Company having previously earned out a considerable- amount of prospecting and development work. Tho company's works were completed, and the plant finally installed in February last. After the erection of the plant, which included retorts for refining sulphur, these, retorts were so badly eroded by previously undiscovered acids, as to cause an explosion in 'Jin. iv which a workman was killed. ThiG in-, efsitatcd the closing down of the refining works, and, as a consequence, the reduction of handy, until such time as a new and more safe and satisfactory process t..ijM 1,, evolved.

In t'i. meantime Mr. Willoiighby had been experimenting with deposits from the i.N.-in.l as a fertiliser, his attention having Urn drawn to their possibilities in that dr., tion by observing the totally iitm.siirf! verdure of the |«.hutukawa growth at "in • side of th" island, the only grin, ;tlot [eft. As the result of the favourable outcome of his experiments with the fertiliser. Mr. Willoiighby decided t, euo.id the works at White Island with ,; vie r of shinning largo quantities to Aurkbmd. Australia and to other centres. This was the object of the despatch from Auckland on September 1 last of the parly of men who were subsequently overwhelmed in the recent disaster. Plans had hten made to provide further rash capital for the company. An expert from England had icrent.lv completed his examination of I he island on behalf of large, capitalist* at Home. This expert returned to England About si* weeks ago in the full expectation of raising all the money required. As to the future operations of the Sulphur Co.. the inannginp-director said he was awaiting a favourable opportunity of visiting the island to make an inspection. In any cat-<i, however, it was likely to be *oine lime before work would be resumed.