THE LOST TERRACES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21001, 12 October 1931, Page 6

THE LOST TERRACES

QUESTION OF THEIR FATE. VIEWS REGARDING LOCATION WHAT HAPPENED IN 1886. In discussing the question whether the White and rink Terraces, on the edge of the old Lake Rotomahana, were destroyed by the eruption of June 10 1886, it has been set out by Mr. H. Lundius, of Wellington, that before the eruption the surface of Lake Tarawe-a was about 1032 ft. above sea level, and that the terraces were at least 100 ft. higher, being on the edge of the neighbouring Rotomahana, which drained into Tarawera through the Kaiwaka Creek. Therefore, the height of the terraces above sea level is taken to be about 1132 ft. Then came the eruption turning Rotomahana into a crater. This crater at its lowest accessible point—explorers could not get down to the actual edge of th® water in its central cavity—was estimated by aneroid barometer to be 565 ft, above sea level, or more than 500 ft. lower than the' pre-eruption level of the terraces. Thereafter, argues Mr. Lundius, the terraces, if they existed after the eruption, must have been " suspended in mid-air." Suggested Survey Checking. That statement—assuming all the elevations to be correctly estimated, both before and after the eruptionseems to be obviously true, provided that the position of the terraces before the eruption was within the radius that was blown out by .the Rotomahana crater, and not two or three or four miles away. While Mr. Lundius candidly points out that the position of the terraces had never been fixed by survey, he is evidently of the opinion that their position was within the radius of the Rotomahana crater's blow-out, and he thinks that, by consulting the crossbearings of the trig survey, this fact could be definitely proved. If so, the department might do so, and thus attempt to answer the question whether the terraces, or either of them, can possibly remain unbroken.

A Wellington correspondent (" L.P.") writes to the Evening Post stating that he was a member of a party, who, in 1900-01, " followed the lead of a steam cloud" and thus " found the activity- at the site of the Pink Terraces." The new Rotomaliana in 1900-01, was "at least from 60ft. to 80ft. above the old level." The party approached Rotomahana from Waimangu, and " at length, in a tiny bay of the lake, water was found fiercely boiling, and from a crack in the surface beside it [arose] a small column [ofJ steam . . . We asserted then that the boiling portion of Rotomahana was over the site of the Pink Terraces. . . . Our drawings showed the site of the Pink Terraces well away from the fissure or rift which split the country. . . . Result of Exploration.

" The White Terraces must have been blown to pieces . . . not so the Pink Terraces. .. . The deduction was that the Pink Terraces were still there, smothered in mud and cinders, and covered to a depth of perhaps 30ft. or 40ft. of water. The vent at the top of the Pink Terraces —which had fed them with the boiling water impregnated with the pink silica —is probably the steam vent which in 1901 was fiercely boiling the edge of the lake at that point." " L.P." adds that he reported this exploration to the Tourist Department, and " was laughed at for his pains." Another correspondent states that, roughly speaking, the figures of elevation indicated by Mr. Lundius show that before the eruption the terraces were about 1100 ft. above sea level. The eruption produced a crater the bottom of which was about 600 ft. below the level of the terraces. Since then the lake has refilled until it is 500 ft. deep, according to soundings credited to Professor Marshall in 1912. If these figures are correct the terraces, if they exist, it is submitted, cannot be far (if at all) below the level of the present Rotomahana. Remarks by Mr. Lundius.

Referring to the above letters, Mr. Lundius writes to the Post as follows: " The only vital question raised by the correspondents is the accuracy or otherwise of the different heights given in my letter. I stated in that letter that the different heights were taken from the report written by the late Mr. S. Percy Smith; and to anyone who had the privilege of knowing that gentleman there should be sufficient guarantee of their correctness. There was never a more thorough and accurate surveyor. The state of affairs in 1900 I am unable to discuss, as I was not thex*e, but of what happened on June 10, 1886, and some weeks afterwards I have a vivid and (shall I say) painful recollection not to be forgotten in a hurry."