HEAVY SHOCKS op EARTHQUAKE AT MOUNT EDGECUMBE.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXI, Issue 2430, 20 October 1866, Page 5

HEAVY SHOCKS op EARTHQUAKE AT MOUNT EDGECUMBE.

The following account of an earthquake in the Mouut "Edgeciunbe district has been kindly handed to us by Dr. Hector. Ifc is an extract from a letter by W. Mair, Esq., R.M., of Taupo, received by tho last mail from the North -. — " I have just returned from an exploring expedition up the Rangitaiki River. ' I was anxious to ascertain how far it was navigable for boats, and find that there is plenty of water till Mount Edgecumbe bears west, and there the rapids commence and the river ia confined within high and rocky walls. While I was in the Rangitaiki Gorge we experienced a severe shock of an earthquake ; it took place about 6.40 p.m. on the 22nd Sept., and lasted about fifteen seconds. The pumice gravel cliffs, forty or fifty feet high on the river banks, all crumbled down, the oarth opened leaving fissures five or six inches wide and five or six feet deep, and terrible thunder issued from Mount Edgecumbe, which was followed by a slight shock in seven minutes, aud two minutes after thore was a severe shock which lusted for twenty seconds. By 11 p.m. there had been twelve shocks, none of which were as strong as the first and third, varying in duration from one to ten seconds. Towards the morning of tho 23rd there were some slight shocks, and at G. 30 p.m. a pretty strong one. A canoo was capsized on iho first shock, and painful to relate, wo lost half-a-dozen of beer by the accident, but the natives, con- , soled me by saying that they would find i \b ia the sum mer. All the shocks came from S.E., and were preceded by rumblings, and during tho first shock loud . reports were heard i from S.S.W., the direction of Turyanui. I The strongest shocks were felt at Te Awa 0 Te Atua entrance, and were just perceptible to a few people at Maketu, but no ono took notes of them at either of those places. The Rangitaiki natives report that it is tlie first earthquake they havo felfc for many years, and they have never felfc anything so severe in these parts ; bufc aboufc thirty years ago a cliff • called Kotukopeka at the Wbatti (about • twenty-five miles S.E. from Mount Edgecumbe) was shaken clown and a hut containing three casks of guupowder .was buried fco such a depth that they could not recover tho powder, which, in those days was very valuable. I am going to Tarawera in a fow days, and probably Mr. Spencer will have something to tell me about the shocks of the 22nd.