ROTORUA ERUPTION

Wairarapa Daily Times, 21 January 1932, Page 5

ROTORUA ERUPTION

BLOW-OUT ON LAKE BED. ROTORUA, Wednesday. A huge column of steam, Avater, mud and debris from the bed of Lake Rotorua Avas thrown into the air between 200 and 300 feet last evening. At first the phenomenon Avas mistaken for a cloud, as little sound accompanied the eruption, but investigation showed that the bed of the Hike Avas bloAvn up at a point about 100 yards from the mouth of the Puaranga stream. In a. feAV minutes, hoAvever, the surface of the lake Avas again placid.

The actual size of the blow-out was not judged, but several acres of the lake front are covered with mud, stones and timber. For fully 100 yards along the lake front there is thick mud, while a point of land running into the lake near the blow-out- has been lengthened by about 30 yards. This last blow-out, though well out in the lake waters, was in the same locality as-the last two outbursts a few months ago, when the Ngapuna pa was startled by a -sensational blow-out, a native garden being engulfed and whares endangered. The whole area seems untrustworthy, and experienced men say that big underground forces are at work. The surface in ulaces in very thin.

It was lucky that no one was in the vicinity last evening, also that there was no property near to be destroyed.