ETNA ERUPTION

Southland Times, Issue 18973, 21 June 1923, Page 5

ETNA ERUPTION

EXTRAORDINARY SCENES GLOW VISIBLE TO NAPLES (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) ROME, June 19. (Received June 20, 8.5 p.m.) The fury of the Etna eruption was unabated all day. The flow of lava is aided by new craters on the western slopes of the mountain, particular!}’ by the caving in of the side crust of the crater, which was active forty-five years ago, and is three miles from the central crater. The seriousness of the crisis is shown by the fact that Mussolini, who was at Florence, hurriedly returned to Rome to organise relief, while King Victor is taking a special train en route to Sicily to lead the rescue work on the spot. The eruption is a splendid, but terrible spectacle throughout southern Italy. The glow of the burning mountain can be seen even from Naples, which is two hundred miles away. Actual flames shooting into the air can be seen from a distance of eighty miles, and deafening reports resembling the roar of great guns can be heard all over the province. A horrible aspect of the disaster for the Sicilians is the continuous rain of cinders, which ignite anything they touch. Thus the forest of Castiglioni was destroyed in a few hours. The molten lava burned the roots of the trees and then the flames caught the branches until the desolation was complete. Despite all the horrors of the visitation, the peasants in the threatened districts are reluctant to leave their homes. Thousands of inhabitants at Lingaglossa and Castiglioni had to be driven forcibly from their homes as they refused to believe that death and destruction could be so near, though the lava stream was at their very gates and the first houses were crumbling in the path of the creeping lava. People, frenzied with fear, stayed praying in their churches or brought out statues of saints and placed them in the path of the oncoming lava, kneeling in the roadway while priests called upon Heaven to stem ‘he awful flood. Every form of invocation md prayer was to be heard, and priests iften had great difficulty in shepherding heir charges back to safety. In one case the prayers seemed likely to be miraculously answered, when the first houses in Linguaglossa were tumbling in be lava flood there seemed a chance that he town would be saved. By a strange Teak the lava stream divided into two irms. The peasants insisted that this wa< hie to Saint Egigo, whose statue had been arried to the stream. The town of Giarre had a terrible experience. Frightened townsfolk had collected i few belongings and were on the point fleeing for their lives when a rain of hot •tones was flung up from the crater. There was a rush for safety indoors, though some ?f the stones, which weighed over two pounds, were crashing through the roofs. When the rain of stones ceased the people led to Riposto. Practically all the inhabitants of the threatened area are now aware of the danger of continuing near the erup Cion, and are' trekking to the coast, and the Messina roads are choked with a medley, of homeless men, women and children, car rying bundles, and pushing hand-carts. Apart from the destruction of towns, the countryside laid waste includes some of the finest and most fertile land in Sicily. Beween Monte Rosso and Monte Roselle •here is a plateau from which the lava Iropped a sheer two hundred feet like a .vatbrfall of fire into the wooded countrywide below. Trees were quickly ablaze and as the lava collected among the blazing timber the place looked like a lake of fire,' .'cd by a cascade of burning lava. The course of the lava is nearly the same as that taken in September, 1911, which wrecked the railway near Castiglioni. The lava has already spread almost to the sea between Messina and Taormina. The villages between the mountain and the coast are obliterated. Wells for miles around Etna have dried up, and the,heat is intense. During eruptions in redent years sellers of ices and cooling drinks made big profits by plying a thriving trade within a few hundred yards of the lava stream, moving their pitches as the lava advanced, but there is nothing of this kind now. Everyone is putting as much space between himself and Etna as possible. European geologists, discussing the cause of the disaster, say that along with the news from Etna comes a report of an earthquake in Rangoon. Both places lie along the line of weakness which geologists call Libbey’s Circle. FIGHT FOR SAINT’S STAFF. MILITARY RESTORE ORDER. ROME, June 19. (Received June 20, 11.30 p.m.) The Government has despatched at full speed a squadron of aeroplanes to approach Etna from the air and report what steps can be taken to help the population. .The Pope sent a million lire to the relief missions. A strange episode occurred at Linguaglosa. While the people were carrying the staff of Saint Egigio in the procession in the hope of staying the flood of lava, people from Castiglione marched to Linguaglosa in a body and seized the staff with the intention of carrying it for use in a miraculous preservation of their own town. A conflict followed and was so serious that the military was called in to separate the combatants. Meanwhile a bishop arrived and took possession of the holy staff.