VOLCANIC ACTIVITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22023, 4 August 1933, Page 7

VOLCANIC ACTIVITY

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— As I take rather mors than a passing interest in geological matters, especially volcanic activity, I' was very much interested in the statements in your paper .by Dr Stearns and Professors Bartrum and Speight concerning the possibility of further volcanic activity in the North' Island, and in the reference to the presence of volcanic rocks in the neighbourhood of Dunedin. It may interest jour readers to know that there is s very deep, open volcanic crater pipe quite dose to our city, on the town side ot Mount Cargill. I think I am the only one who has eeen it, as I did on one occasion when I very narrowly escaped maldng a personal acquaintance with its depths, and I -would suggest that the Tramping Club or some similar organisation should make a point of definitely locating it and having the scrub and undergrowth cleared from around the nm ot the steeply funnel-shaped mouth. Ihe pipe itself is a clean. Circular, pocky wall of from 20 to 30 feet in diameter, going plumb down to an immense depth to a surface of water, which appeared like a tiny star in the darkness. Perhaps, it i show how I came across it it may explain' my suggestions that someone should definitely locate it, as I consider it a very dangerous spot to anyone, coming on it unawares, as I did. Some years ago my late father and myself took a ramble over Mount Cargill partly for the sake of the view and partly to look for a particular specimen ot a fern. After leaving the top of the mountain, we decided to come down by way of Betbune’s Gully, as the head of the gully seemed to be quite near at hand. After we got down the rocky face at tlie top we came to a stretch of ground descending at an easy elope for some distance. It gradually became more difficult to get through this, owing to the dense undergrowth which had come up when the big bush fires of 1880 had cleared the bush. When, finding it very difficult going, we saw just ahead what looked like a clearing, we persevered in getting through. As I was in the lead and was forcing my way partly over and partly through the undergrowth, which was mostly young hina hina, I suddenly found myself in the open clearing, but instead of its being flat ground I was sliding down a smooth grassy slope, and came to rest with my legs astride a short bunch of stumps ot manuka scrub about a foot long with my feet hanging down the pipe well, and my eyes trying to pierce the depths. Needless to say, I was not so much interested in studying details a*? I was to get out of Buch an ugly position. My father, who was just at my back, could not help me until I had managed after some time and after several failures, to work my way up backwards bv digging my heels into the grass and gripping the short grass with my hands, while I kept my eye upon the short stumps in case I slipped again, until 1 got far enough for him to grip me by the collar of my coat and help me to a safer footing again. If anyone is interested enough to explore further I shall gladly give all the particulars I can, my name and address being in your Dunedin, August 2.

TO THE EDITOR. g lß .—The observations of Dr Stearns the American geologist on volcanic activity in New Zealand, appearing in Monday s issue, have set my mind working again on the subject of earthquakes. Strangely enough, in your same issue appears a paragraph of a report ot the Smithsonian Institute making a prediction that the sun will contain (or emit) loss heat during the next two years, and that this must have some effect upon the earth. . . I am writing this to inquire of you it inv surmise is not correct, that it is the action ot the sun that holds our planet in position, and to inquire if this change in the sun, as predicted, may not have the effect of causing our earth to_ tilt bacß into its former position. This tilting back would undoubtedly be accompanied by severe earthquakes and volcanic activity. For a number of years I have been or the opinion, from biblical calculation ot prophetic dates, that a period ot great earthquake and volcanic activity would come about 1934-6, the chief one being in Southern Palestine, inundating all the low-lying land of Judtea and away back past the Dead Sea, so that the Mediterraneau and the Red Sea would connect, making a new ocean highway, placing Jerusalem on the seaboard, and drying up tbe present outlets of the Nile. , Some years an eminent geologist, whose name I forget, announced his opinion that Southern Palestine lay on a great fault in the earth’s crust that was likely to sever within a decade or two. Th e present economic chaos, Divinely foretold, confirms my opinion that the time of earthquake activity is near, for in Scripture the two are concurrent, or, to be exact, the sequence is chaos, unexpected war, earthquake, peace.

Let me add, while writing this, that I am convinced that this present world chaos is sent as a Divine punishment for mankind’s shortcomings in the worship of money and self and false creeds, instead of Almighty God; and that it will not pass away until sin is banished from the earth —which means the commencement of the Millennium. Does the clergy expect this' age to go on for ever? I was rather surprised that some of the reverend lecturers at the University at the economic conditions series did not touch on this aspect, although I noticed that the doctor on the educational aspect looked for great progress when “ Peace on earth, goodwill to men comes. He was most probably quite right: That quotation is only another name for the Messiah.—l am, etc., G. S. Paxton. HighclifT, August 1.