FALCON ISLAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20432, 12 June 1928, Page 13

FALCON ISLAND.

TONGAN FLAG HOISTED. (Special to Daily Times.) AUCKLAND, June 11.-"' The Tongan flag now floats in the tropical breeze above Falcon Island, that mysterious island, some 47 miles distant from Tonga, where a fire was reported to have been seen by those on board the steamer Tutanekai, when she took a detachment of special police recently to Samoa. Passengers arriving by the Tofua in Auckland this afternoon stated that they were joined at Nukualofa on the run to Suva by Dr Ladd, an eminent geologist, from one of the American universities. Dr Ladd bad -made a special visit to Falcon Island with the Premier of Tonga (Fiji) and his party. It was then that the Tongan flag was hoisted on the island. Falcon Island is that mysterious patch of earth in the Pacific which sometimes increases in size and at other times almost disappears. Dr Ladd reported that - "' the island at present is just a mound of - ashes with deposits of sulphur in the crater. There were no signs of recent, fire or of lava, and he said that ti« island was washing away rapidly through the action of the sea. The American scientist was enthusiastic over his ex- • perience in visiting the island, which he regards as a very remarkable phenomena. _ Although it is now in process of receding there is every probability that the island may again assert itself in the fullness of its greatest size.