OUR ILLUSTRATIONS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXII, Issue XII, 25 March 1899, Page 369

OUR ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE RECENT VOLCANIC ACTIVITY.

The three giants Tongariro, Ngaruhoe. and Ruapehu, are the most interesting 1 volcanic mountains in New Zealand. Ruapehu, the largest and the quietest of the trio, has not yet lost his old energy, as the lake, sometimes boiling, at the bottom of his icewalled crater sufficiently testifies. Tongariro again gives proof that his fiery heart is not yet stilled in a variety of steam holes and boiling cauldrons on his sides. But it is Ngaruhoe which is the most evidently alive and attractive of all. In appearance. Ngaruhoe is an ideal volcano. His lower slopes present a bewildering confusion of volcanic debris, while the upper half of gigantic form is a perfect cone of rugged black lava, except when it is covered with the white mantle of snow which clothes it for the greater part of the year. He looks a volcano every inch of him, even when he is not sending out a white column of steam as is frequently the ease. It must be confessed that that column of steam, rising often thousands of feet into the air, is calculated to raise false hopes in the mind of the spectator in search of the wonderful. He cannot but imagine every moment that he is about to witness a genuine eruption—perhaps another Tarawera. display, but that beautiful white pillar as a rule represents the entire extent of Ngaruhoe's activity". When it is at its highest and fiercest, the ascent of the mountain and the descent into the outer crater can usually l>e accomplished with perfect safety if ordinary care is observed. It is not often that the volcano is so active as to make it positively dangerous to climb it. There are occasions, however, when it takes it into its head to be more demonstrative, and the 4th inst. was one of these. Just about sunset the people of Taupo, which place commands the best panoramic view of the range, saw smoke coming from the summit of the volcano. At the same time there were symptoms of action nt Ketetahi and Te Mare, the former a huge steam hole on the right slope of Tongariro, and the latter a smaller vent. The volume of smoke graduallyincreased until a huge column of dark matter was ascending high into the heavens. Then as the breeze caught it, this cloudy pillar was turned in an easterly direction, and broke off from its origin, travelling quickly in front of Ruapehu, towards the Kaimanawa ranges, over which it hovered. By this time the. sun was setting, and its rays striking on the cloud of smoke, gave a pink hue to the edge of it and lighted up the smaller column coming from the summit of Ngaruhoe. Just before the sun disappeared below the horizon the scene was particularly beautiful, and the colours caused by the after glow lire described by an eye witness as magnificent. The broad lake of Taupo presented a peculiarly charming appearance when suffused in the strange light. There

was no earthquake nor the slightest tremor felt in Taupo. THE MAORIS AND THE OLD AGE TENSIONS. Some very amusing incidents are told in regal<l to the investigation of eld age pension claims among the Maoris. The natives have been quick to recognise the benefits which the new legislation has conferred on the old and indigent of both races, and urge their claims with a business shrewdness that is not a little surprising. In most places the magistrates dealing with Maori claims have had great difficulty’ in settling them, the system of common ownership of land among the natives making- it hard to determine the actual worldly possessions of the individual claimants. The photographs we reproduce were taken outside the courthouse, Rawcne. in the Hokianga district. In that remote part of the colony- the conditions of life among the natives are of the simplest, anil probably in few other places will one find the characteristics of the race less neutralised by’ European innovations. The pictures speak for themselves. In connection with that of Hata. the old man sitting on the barrow. there is an interesting little story illustrative of the old Maori days. Hata when asked his age said: •| can give the court the. exact date of my birth. It is a historical fact that Hongi Heke captured the Rangiura pa in 1821, and at that fight my father was the first in the pa. He ki-led three men and split another with a mere. After the pa was taken Hongi congratulated my father and asked him where my mother (Hongi's niece) was. My father directed Hongi to go into the fern a little off the track where my’ mother lay in labour. As Hongi walked up to her she screamed and I was born.’ As showing that the Maori has a sharp eye fcr effect, the following is good. A few hours before the court opened at Rawene a middle-aged Maori was seen carrying a hundredweight of potatoes on his back, which he offered ior sale. After carrying them from house to house he sold them; and still being in plenty of time for the court he went to the titree. put on a shabby ragged suit of clothes, cut a walking- stick, and preferred his < laim for a pension in true ucor-old-ma n style. It is not. said whether be got his pension or not. THE RECENT RAILWAY ACCIDENT. Our sketch will convey a good idea of the character of the disastrous railway accident, which occurred the week before last, at Rakaia, near Christchurch. Particulars of the affair—the worst of its kind that has ever occurred in New Zealand are familiar to our readers, and there is no occasion to repeat them. If there can be any mitigation of the distress such an accident causes us all to feel.it is the reflection that the disaster might have been much worse. Had the first train not been on the move when the second one overtook and ran into it the result must have been awful.