ROTOMAHANA TERRACES.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12725, 22 February 1910, Page 4

ROTOMAHANA TERRACES.

ARE THEY DESTROYED ? [United Press association.] Rotorua, Feb. 21. A project that has been mooted more than once before is being seriously discussed again daily, viz., the possibility of recovering the famous Terraces at Rotomahana. Guide Warbrick stoutly maintains that they were never destroyed but simply buried, basing his belief on the fact that he has searched the whole of the ground in the neighbourhood of the lake and never found a fragment of the terrace formation. Lake Hotomahana has filled up to nearly twenty times its original size, and is now mere than 100 feet above its former level. There is no outlet, and it is still rising. Another 25 feet will cause it to overflow into its old channel, which will soon be scoured out. The idea is to hasten tin's process by giving it a start by making a cnt in tho topmost layer of terraces whore

they were originally 70 or 80 feeabovo the water, and are therefore now submerged to 20 to 30 feet Above this is a deposit of mud; but this, it is believed, could be shovelled or pushed into the lake with jio great labour. If tho terraces still exist the lowering of the water, it is hoped, will bring them to light again. On the other hand, one autnonty at least believes that if the terraces were nofc destroyed in the eruption, the steam confined below by this time will have converted the silicious formation mtti pulp, and destroyed the beautiful contours. Believers in their continued existence c/f th© terraces flout this theory, and contend that the formation is much too hard to be injured by steam. 1 1 _'i;-

English Girl : "I don't really know where Jack and I are going for tho honeymoon." American Friend : "Ever tried Switzerland? I always go thero for mine"