THE VOLCANO SCARE.

Observer, Volume XXIV, Issue 5, 17 October 1903, Page 3

THE VOLCANO SCARE.

Its Humourous Side

IF Kotoinaimiiu and Waimangu are endowed with consciousness*, us llie Theosophistsdeclareajl nature, inorganic as well as organic, to be, and are, further, gifted with a sense of the ludicrous, they iuu»t be indulging in some hearty Plutonic laughter at the present time. For the speculative gambols of some mortals who dwell on tli'; rind of the earth- are funny enough to tickle the fancy of the-gods. As an instance, there is the amazing theory- of the Taurauga Times concerning Kotoiuahana. The value of a sensation ot tlris kind to a country newsis obvious. War has ceased, Parliament is dull, local questions are not burning, there is no election at hand — and there you have the explanation, in part at least, if it pleases the editor of a newspaper to indulge in speculations concerning volcanoes and lakes with cracked bottoms that ought to be draiutd, no harm is done so long as nobody ulse takes him seriously.

I" nf 01 Innately, he has been taken seriously, and that is where the mischief comes in, and the justification for that underground merriment, the accompanying cacliinnations of which may alone bring about the catastrophe alleged to be imminent. Of the multitude who made response to the cry from Tauranga, this journal alone paid the crier the compliment of assuming that he is a humourist. Everybody else, from the Premier down, thought it was the voice either of a prophet or a charlatan King liichard at once instructed Dr Wohlinann to report, and sent Mr Donne post haste to the locality. Professor Thomas was also appealed to. The Ministry awaited the result with trembling anxiety, and meantime the solemn warning from the Bay of Plenty was reproduced by the press throughout the colony, sometimes with comment, sometimes without, but in all cases with the respect due to an epochmaking discovery.

The scientists discounted the alarm by pointing out, in a deferential way, that thf draining of Rotomahana demanded by the Tauranga editor would not affect Waimangu, while it might possibly flood the country lying below Tarawera ; and Mr Donne opined that the fencing in of the geyser would meet all the present demands of the case. Josiah Martin, who knows something of the locality — has been there times out of number and studied the phenomena — adds that the rise in the level of Rotomahana may possibly be accounted for by the uplifting of the lake-bottom. The sum total of the conclusions is that it is wiser to leave nature alone. "Better the devil you do know than the devil you don't." So far, the attitude of the alarmist's critics, where it is antagonistic at all, is one of mild expostulation, which, if it betrays a lack of the saving sense of humour, at least does credit to their judicial temperament.

It is reserved for the Rotorua paper to exhibit anger. And, considering the interests at stake, this anger is not without some justification. Rumours of war are almost as bad as war itself, and the blow the tourist traffic received in 1886 was of such a staggering nature that no one interested in the matter desires to see a repetition of it, even in the imkiestf orm. The Chronicle derides the theory of the iiuniineiicy of an eruption owing to the pressure of the lake water, and wants to know why White Island does not burs v up under the weight of the sea? This is in the real spirit of tv quoque, and the use of this style of argument only goes to emphasise our contention that the subject should never have been taken seriously at all. Some years ago, an enterprising person imported a case of Australian snakes to Wellington. The Customs people asked him what he was going to do with them. He replied that he was going to liberate them, adding that he thought they would do well in this country ! The authorities didn't stop to argue the point ; they just smiled and sank the case (well weighted with stone) outside the Heads. There is a moral in. this, if one but looks for it.