SUPPOSED LOSS OF LIFE.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 157, 19 June 1886, Page 1

SUPPOSED LOSS OF LIFE.

We have all passed a fearful night here. The earth has been in a continual quake since midnight. At 2.10 a.m. there was a heavy quake, then a fearful roar, which made everyone run out of their houses, and a grand yet terrible sight for those so near as we were presented itself. Mount Tarawera, close to Rotomahana, became suddenly an active volcano, belching out fire and lava to a great height. The eruption appears to have extended itself to several places southwards. A dense mass of ashes came pouring down here at 4. a.m., accompanied" by a suffocating smell from the lower regions. This immense black cloud, which extended inline'froniTaheke to Paeroa mountain, was one continual mass of electricity all night, and is still tfie same. Between the roar of the thunder, the roaring of the 3or 4 different craters and the stench, and the continued quaking of the earth, several families left their homes in bheir night dresses, with whatever they could seize in the hurry, and made for, Taurangn. Others who are lucky got horses antf. Left for Oxford. Judging from the quantity of ashes and drtst here I fear serious results to the people at Wairoa and all the natives round Tarawera Lake.