NGAURUHOE ERUPTS; HAZE COVERS DISTRICT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17698, 19 November 1925, Page 7

NGAURUHOE ERUPTS; HAZE COVERS DISTRICT.

SMOKE SEEN FROM AUCKLAND; ’QUAKES FELT IN NORTHERN CITIES. I l’er Press Association. . AUCKLAND, November 19. A report from Taupo states that Ngauruhoe yesterday was smoking strongly, belching out great fclouds ojE vapour. By using a telescope last night, before sunset, heavy smoke could be seen over the mountain. The whole district is enveloped in a haze. A sharp shock of earthquake was felt in the city at 10.20 last night, and also at Morrinsville, Waiuku and elsewhere. £ TAUMARUN-UI, November 19. Shortly after ten o’clock last night a fairly severe earthquake was experienced, lasting seven seconds. Some alarm was caused, but fhere was no damage. The volcano Ngauruhoe has been active for three or four days, and yesterday a column of smoke 700 or 800 feet high was emitted from the crater. The volcano still was active to-day, though not to the same extent as last night. Several shocks were felt in the vicinity of Waimarino.

A sharp earthquake shock was registered in Wellington about 10.30 last night. In Tongariro National Park, “ a gift of burning mountains,” made io New Zealand by a Maori chief, is Ngauruhoe, the youngest of the Dominion’s volcanoes. It is a symmetrical cone 7515 feet high, with a crest occupied by a spacious crater, containing two smaller craters, which usually discharge sulphuric acid fumes with much noise and force. The most serious eruption which New Zealand lias suffered was in 1880, when Tarawcra broke into violent action, laying waste great tracts of country. The loss of life was considerable, a number of villages were destroyed, and thousands of acres of cultivated fields were blotted out. The famous Pink Terraces were also destroyed, and the whole face of the country was rdtered by the eruption.