IN GEYSERLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22504, 23 February 1935, Page 4

IN GEYSERLAND

ALFRED WARBRICK’S FASCINATING RECORD Warbr'lck. Preface by Janies Cowan. Illustrated. Dunedin: A. H. and A. W. Reed. ss. The author of this book has had uaique experience of quite the most extraordinary of New Zealand phenomena. For 45 years of his, life he was explorer, guide, and philosopher-in-chief in the hydrothermal and volcanic region of the North Island, and his “Adventures In Geyserlarid ” contains in it the essence of an attractive philosophy as well as a record of actual experieaces and positive events which mark it out of the ordinary run of reminiscence. In his official career as guide Mr Warbrick has made contact with all conditions of men, including practically every distinguished visitor to the Rotorua district. A list of the celebrities he has known would commence back in the eighties, when Sir George Grey used to call at his home to talk, about early New Zealand. It would include princes

of the blood, great travellers, statesmen, and every Governor-General of the Dominion. Lord Bledisloe has shown his' keen interest in tl\e district and the personality of the author by reading his book in MS., and in a dedication Mr Wafbrick acknowledges the assistance he' has received in the form of suggestions from the Governor-General. Rut Mr Warbrick has too much material of a striking nature to require that his book should be a chronicle of distinguished names and ordinary guiding activities. Geyaerland holds adventure, often terror and danger, for those, who have, known it. over a, long period ,inH all its moods, and Mr Warbrick/ is probably better acquainted with this strangely fascinating region than any other living man. He was actually an eye-witness of the Tarawera eruption, bejng camped in the Makatiti bush country on the June night in 1886 when it occurred. His description is graphic. The night was lit by “an unearthly glare and glofw,” with the erupting mountain directly opposite his party across the lake sending up flame and stones from four distinct fissures. The watchers were forced to cling to the walls of their camping hut to maintain a footing, and after the eruption were imprisoned in it by debris through 30 hours of continuous darkness. When Mr Warbrick was able to return to his village, to organise a search expedition, he was greeted by his people as a spirit. “My uncle left the house and came forward to meet what he thought was my ghost. On discovering that I was niy real live self he greeted me enthusiastically. . .. . He advised me not to go to the meeting-house that night, because I had been'mourned as killed, but that at daylight in the morning I would b e bx-ought before the full assembly.” He tells some dramatic stories of the aftermath of that - cataclasm, in which 150 lives were lost, and gives a description of the descent of the crater of Rotomahana which he led a few weeks later, to establish the fate of the Terraces. Mr Warbrick’s account of the part he took in meeting the emergency of the Tarawera eruption will convince any reader of his qualifications for the later work which he undertook. In the preface to this book Mr James Cowan describes the Rotomahana adventure, on which a journalist accompanied Mr Warbrick, as “probably the most courageous and dramatic feat ever performed in the history of the Thermal country.” It was after this incident that, on the suggestion of Mr Ballanoe, Mr Warbrick adopted guid-' ing as a px’ofession. . Some of his people were jealous of the prestige the post afforded him, and used to damage his. boats. For a time he was even compelled to. travel armed. Other outstanding incidents which he describes are his “somewhat foolhardy invasion” of the heart of Waimangu in 1903, when he and a companion launched a dinghy and rowed about the boiling surface of the geyser, and the eruption of 1917. Readers overseas may be impressed by the calm curiosity with which New Zealanders take their geysers, when they learn from Jdr Warbrick’s account of this eruption:— , When I returned the place was still in violent eruption. That day about 2000 people arrived from all parts, travelling all the previous night in

their cars. The great rock face, Gibraltar, was unaffected by the eruption, but the author has a prediction concerning it which would scarcely be encouraging of tourist traffic if curiosity had not been proved to.be more compelling than fear; — , The rock still stands, but it will assuredly be blown into thousands of fragments one of these days, as euro ah, my name is Warbrick. In..the later pages of “Adventures in Geyserland ” the reader is permitted to obtain some interesting glimpses of Maori lore and history, a short chapter .on the second-sight of the Native race being of exceptional suggestiveness. But all through this book there is a subtle undercurrent of what might, for want of a better word, be called Maori mysticism, which makes it an unusual document. And/nobody can fail to be engaged by

such asides as Mr Warbrick’s description of the mummy of a red-haired Maori giant “ who must have been eight feet high,” which he found in a cave ; When the suggestion was made that it might be brought out for exhibition in a museum he visited the cave again, retrieved the curiosity, and, weighing it, dropped it in the deepest part of Lake Tarawera: “No one will ever disturb the old fellow now,” he said. This book has a pleasant format, and is of a convenient size for travellers, who may be expected to be among its purchasers. The illustrations are numerous, and some of them of exceptional interest. . J. M.