Art. LV.—On a Volcanic-dust Shower in Napier.

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 29, 1896, Page 571

Art. LV.—On a Volcanic-dust Shower in Napier. By H. Hilln, B.A. [Read before the Hawke's Bay Philosophical Institute, 14th. January, 1897.] I Wish to place on record a storm of volcanic dust which fell in Napier on the night of the 14th December and early in the morning of the 15th December last. A strong wind had been blowing from the north-west on the previous day, and clouds had been seen coming from that direction, but nothing unusual was expected from this circumstance. The evening of the 14th was rather boisterous, but it was not until early in the morning of the 15th that, the falling dust was noticed, except in one or two cases where clothes were being taken in from the drying-line

late at night. In these cases it was noticed that the clothes were covered “with a fine grey dust, but it was supposed to have resulted from the dryness of the ground in the vicinity. Early on the 15th those who were up noticed dust falling on their clothes. This was especially noticeable on the western and north-western side of the town, where the quantities that fell enabled several bottles to be filled from the roofs of the houses. Mr. Arthur McCarthy, who lives on Battery Point, brought me some of the specimens collected by him, as did also Mr. Yuill. These were gathered from different localities, but they are similar in every particular. One of the officers of the borough prison gathered some of the dust, and I also gathered some at the Athenæum rooms and at my own house. The specimens I have are exactly similar to the fine dust which fell on the deck of the steamer “Southern Cross” as she was passing along the Bay of Plenty on her way to Napier on the morning following the Tarawera eruption in July, 1886. In order to obtain the fullest information concerning the distribution of the dust, I wrote a few lines to each, of our local papers asking for information, but no one outside Napier appears to have noticed any dust except Mr. Peters, who has the mail-contract for the coach-line between Moawhango and Tokaanu. There had been telegrams announcing volcanic explosions at Tongariro, and he informed me that Te Mari had burst out in a fresh place, and that a number of dust-showers had occurred. The country extending from Roto Aira to the Wai-o-ho-nu Stream, in the direction of the Onetapu Desert, had been covered with volcanic dust to the depth of 2in., and most of the vegetation had been destroyed. He stated that the dust-storm had reached Tokaanu, and that he noticed the wind, when it changed to the west and north-west, carried an immense black cloud in the direction of the Kaimanawa Mountains, and he supposed that portions of the cloud, which was full of dust, reached Napier. I have not been able to find out whether the district has been visited by a similar storm within the memory of any living colonist, but the recent shower is a full testimony as to the truth of the statement made by me in a paper that was read before our Society in 1886, entitled” Traces of Volcanic-dust Showers at Napier and Petane,”* Trans. N.Z. Inst., xix., art. xlix. wherein it is stated that “in and around Napier a large percentage, in fact the larger portion, of the soil is of volcanic origin.” The last eruption of Te Mari was in November, 1892. It was visited by me on the 1st January, 1893, and a description of it appears in the Transactions, vol. xxvi., art. xliii.