Various Accounts.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5642, 11 June 1886, Page 3

Various Accounts.

The following are the " HERALD " TELEGRAMS t ROTORUA, Thursday. About 1 o'clock this morning slight rumbling earthquakes were felt, and continued increasing in violence for an hour or so. Between 2 and 3 a.m. a loud and continued roar, as of a furnace jet, culminated in a terrific volcanic outbreak in the region of Rotomahana, which was something grand and awful to behold, striking terror into all the inhabitants, many of whom fled from their homes in what they stood up in. The natives clustered in groups, frightened to death, and held religious services all over the place. The heavens in this region presented a magnificent spectacle. Flashing fires of all colours, which immeasurably surpassed any of the displays ever exhibited, rendered the scene, with its blazing volcano in the centre, truly grand. This coutinued tiil daylight, and was accompanied by a heavy thunderstorm. Prom Wairoa disastrous news is learned. Nearly every house in that village is levelled to the ground, and the country is spread for miles with fully two feet of mud, boulders, and sand. The lovely Tekapu bush iB like a desert waste ; the trees are stripped of their foliage with the weight of mud, and many of the gigantic ones are levelled to the ground. THE CASUALTIES are not as yet sufficiently known. M'Rae's people all escaped, but the schoolmaster and his family are reported as killed, with the exception of two children. Ten or twelve Maoris are reported killed, and many dying. FURTHER PARTICULARS state that the volcano burst out on the top of Tarewera mountain. What effect it had on Rotomahana ia not yet known. The families and tourists are fast clearing out to places of safety, and the utmost consternation at present exists. REPORTS JUST ARRIVED state that Mrs Hazard was rescued from the debris, but the child at her breast is dead. All the natives living at Tepiki have haee perished.