THE VOLCANIC DISTURBANCE.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1845, 16 June 1886, Page 2

THE VOLCANIC DISTURBANCE.

ANOTHER ERUPTION FEARED THE TERRACES COMPLETELY DESTROYED. Rotorua, Monday. Starling information has just been brought in by some natives in a canoe from the island Mokoia, on Lake Rotorua, onlv four miles from this township, that the base of the island is softening, and the island is covered with an eruption of steam, They expect an outbreak. The residents of Rotorua are all sendiugtheir families away again Four left to-day. The island natives have all arrived here, fearing to stop on the island. Things are looking worse. Burt just arrived safe with natives from extremes! point. He brings sad news. The terraces are completely destroyed. Rotoma - hana is half blown away, while Kakaramea Rotokokohoko and Rotomahana Lakes are one seething mass. The damage to the country is far greater than was expected Earthquakes are still rumbling. The search party at Wairoa have found the mangled body of the Cambridge English tourist, Mr. Baiubridge, under the hotel verandah. Three fy-notes were found on him. At Rotorua a great many cattle are sure to be starved to death. Numbers of the poor beasts was seen running about the road, evidently in search of something to eat. Pure water is also hard to find. The appearance of the ruins at Wairoa is sorrowful in the extreme, the whares being buried to the ridge and the people who survive being in a nude state. The mill is in peices. Only one or two whares in the whole settlement haved outlived the eruption, and it is owing to the shelter afforded by those places that any persons have been saved. The fences are no obstacles against one walking where one likes : only a few inches of them are above the surface. When the search party reached Wairoa the bodies of four natives had been recovered—two women, one man, and one child. There are supEosed to be five or six more dead Maories urned at Wairoa. Gangs of natives were busy all day excavating their whares, or what remained of them, and bringing what portion of the goods they could rake out to Rotorua. Coach-loads of people have been coming here every day from all parts of the country since the eruption took place.

The Rotomahana Lake is, beyond doubt, the centre of the eruption. From the hill overlooking the place where the Pink Terrace stood the site of the lake presents the appearance of a series of craters belching up scoria, stones, and columns of smoke and steam. Along the creek which carried the waters of Okaro Lake into Rotomahana four volcanoes have broken into eruption, and are belching out black stones. From the clouds of smoke and steam overhanging Rotomahana, it is impossible to see whether anything of the lake remains, but as far as could be judged of the position of Pink Terrace, it is occupied by a crater, from which showers of stone are issuing. The whole aspect of the lake country leaves no hope that the Terraces have escaped destruction. Seven square miles of country round Rotomahana are covered with a deep coating of grey earth, dry, and resembling Mahurangi lime in appearance. Okaro Lake is undisturbed, aad Kakaramea Mountain shows no sign of erup tion.

Showers of dust and pumice are very thick at Opotiki and Whakatane, covering the ground to a depth of several inches. The feed for the time being is completely destroyed, and it is not expected to recover for many months. The settlers are at their wits’ end to know what to do The cattle are reported to be roaming about bellowing in a state of starvation.

The road between Tauranga and Te Puke is strewn with dead sheep and horses. Most of the former perished by being poisoned with tutu. The latter were swamped. The Premier received from Mr W. M. Berry, at Botorua, the following telegram “ Have just returned from Botomahana. Party penetrated by way of Kakaramea; got to back and windward of the volcano. The Terraces are gone. The whole base occupied by them and by Botomahana is now a aeries of great volcanoes, and a grand and terrible spectacle. Huge boulders and showers of ashes are being thrown up by them. Tarawera, as far as we could see it, was free from volcanic disturbance. We could not see the site of the White Terrace for smoke and steam, but it cannot exist. The Pink Terrace looks as if it bad fallen fin. For forty miles ronnd the country is covered with stones and ashes thrown out. 'All the natives about Botomahana must have perished.’’ A telegram from Wanganui on Monday states that Mr Lawrence Cussen, of the Survey Department, was at the top of Ruapehu three weeks ago, when he saw steam issuing from the crater. A few days after, he saw a column of steam 200 feet high. The Datives stated they bad never known anything of the kind to happen before, Ruapehu always being deemed extinct. The Northern Steamship Company at Auckland are putting on all available steamers to bring up cattle from the districts in the Bay of Plenty affected by the eruption. White Island is reported to lie showing increased activity, and Whakatane threatened in consequence. Napieb, Jane 13, Tongariro has been unusually active today, emitting large and intermittent columns of steam. The steam holea about Taupo have also been unusually active. A report has come round from the south end of Lake Taupo that during the day preceding, and the uight of the eruption, Tongariro was rumbling angrily, and making thundering noises. The shepherds at the foot of the mountain were gravely alarmed, and sat up all night.

Tauranoa, June 14. Immense columns of vapor, arising from tho volcanoes, are plainly visible from here. White Island has been particularly active during the day. The effects of the eruptions are now fully felt by the Bay of Plenty settlers. Four steamers have left laden with stock. Two more ate to sail to-moirow. Mobs of cattle, chiefly from Wbakatane, are being driven overland to Waikato. The coast is aflected as far east as Oreti. At Te Puke the volcanic deposit is from one to two inches in thickness. At Bangiriri there is as much as three inches, and at Wbakatane about the same, but much coarser. A TOUGH OLD CHIEF. AN ERRATIC METEOB. Rotorua, June 14. The search party at Wairoa have dug out another old chief supposed to be 110 years old. He was active aud able to speak after burial five feet under ground for 104 hours. Ho has arrived at Tongariro alive. An immense meteor hovered over Rotoru i district at 4 o’clock this morning, occasion* ally drifting north then back south, oacilating to and fro for half-au hour, and emitting a glittering electric light. It occasionally LeC..H10 obscure, as if revolving ; it then rose, and fur a time showed an extensivnlurid halo! At about 5 o'clock it reached a higher altitude and assumed the appearance of a star of the first magnitude, remaining stationary. A n. i-e is of distant artillery waa notioedjduring the phenomenon. ORDERS GIVEN FOR THE EVACUATION OF WAIROA.

DANGEROUS MUD GLACIERS. IIoTOBDA, Juris 13. Dr Hector's visit to Wairoa was the most important eve it of to-day. Whatever inteo Con he had of setting oat In the boat across Caraw. ia Lake he abandoned after examination of the position of affairs. Indeed, b* oooaltered this so seriors that lie ordered Cie immediate evacua iou of Wairoa, and iiie c'osiu ’of iberoad, which haa now become an almost impassable sea of mnd, in which vehicles, pedestrians, and horsemen are continually boggtd. Dr Heotot'i SfMOM tot

;l >■ ; t!;..>• >,t fan luii.B, Ili'hi'U/t! 'lie; T.;c ■;■■! ii, K-i' '« nor e\ta iuijn oball*j, iiut ihc consequence which must follow the hist Heavy rain. Wher* the mud has become softened with water, it has already c miiumwd to slip down the hill sides in streams, and Ibis fact points ta the consequence of a general subsidence of the millions of tons of mud on the steep hill sides. In Dr Hectors opinion grest mud glaciers wouid be firmed, which, slipping into the valleys and lakes, would bury the pah to a depth of perhaps 40 feel, and render escape impossible to anyone thus cut off. Ha thinks the danger to human life now from this cause is infinitely greater than from any increase in the volcanic energy. The lakes being filled with vast masses of mud won’d overflow, and a loug time, perhaps months, must elapse before the country can settle into a condition of anything like permament subsidence. With the indications of au early break in the loug-oontiuued fine weather, Dr Hector considers it advisable to delay precautionary measures, aud everyone is being hurried into Uotorua by his direction tonight.

TWO VILLAGES BURIED.

Sergeant Cahid, who was one ol the boating part; under Major Mair, which crossed to Rotomahana yesterday, came into Rotorua at midnight. He reports that the boat reached the site of Te Ariki, aud the party found the settlement buried to a depth of 20 feet. Thera is no trace of life or any habitation. No human aid could have availed them anything. Moura, the native settlement on the point of Tarawera where it bends towards Te Ariki, ia believed to have slipped bodily into the lake. A correspondent telegraphs Where Rotomahaoa Lake formerly existed there was nothing now visible but a series of craters in full activity, and belching out stones every few minutes. I counted eleven of these craters on tbe,side of the lake immediately below our feet, and heavy masses of smoke and steam hindered further view of the lake, but there it no doubt that other craters were in play further towards the centre, and that if the water was not entirely driven out of the lake, it bad become a great boiling cauldron. Where the beautiful Pink Terrace stood one of the largest of these craters wss in full play, but lbs fate ol the terrace itself could only be conjectured. From the forces at work within and around it the nature of that late can hardly be in doubt. A PHANTOM CANOE. The statement that some Maoris saw an apparition of a war canoe on Lake Tarawern before the eruption took place is no doubt true. It is only igorant people who laugh at the idea, but history teems with instances of such occurrences, A gentleman now io Wellington who was on a tour in the Hot Lakes District, was in a canoe with some Maoris. He says they were paddling along tbs southern shore of the Tarawera Lake when suddenly a large war canoe appeared not fat off. It came gliding along, nearly parallel to aud apparently racing them. The Maoris in the tourists’ canoe hailed those in the war caaoe, bat received no answer, and as the former rounded the bend in the direction of Rotomahana, the latter shot out of view in a north easterly direction. The Maoris immediately became terrihed, aad exclaimed “ Taipo !” They said there was no war canoe iu the district, and therefore this must be a phantom indicative of evil. When the natives and tourists returned to Wairoa, they made enquiries of the oldest natives, all cl whom declared that such a canoe as described had never been seen by them. One gentleman, who had been 17 years in Ts Wairoa, also said be never knew a war canoo upon the waters of the Lake Country. The ’ gentleman spoken of above, states that the day was beautifully clear, and there was nothing in the atmosphere to cause an optical delusion.