The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-07-05
Stnpendous Volcanic Eruption I'm
New Zealand.

graphic descriptions OF the SIupeIpIOus VOL
canic phenomena that set in there on the
night of June 9Th, or early on the 10th
The details are too full, however, to admit
even of condensation No such exhibition
of volcanic energy has ever happened with
in the historic age, and from recent indi-
cations in Australia and elsewhere in the
South Pacific countries, scientists think
that the earth is entering upon period OF
volcanic activity which may result in most
important changes in the earth crust.
The center of this volcanic activity is
situated in the Auckland provincial dis
trlct, known as the Hot Lake region. This
was considered the safety-valye of New
Zealand. It's hot springs and miniature
mud volcanoes might have been counted
by hundreds, but it was specially famous
for its two great boiling fountains, with
their white and pink terraces, which were
the perfection of beauty and the wonder
and admiration of all behOlders. These
terraces have been destroyed. Lake ROto-
mahana has disappeared. The entire face
of the country has been changed. Vege-
tation has been utterly destroyed over
sixty miles, and temporarily so over a
much wider area. Three large craters
have been formed. and where Lake Roto-
mahana stOod--a gem of beauty-is now a
bare pumice valley, dotted all over with
volcanic cones in state of incessant ac-
tivity, while millions of tons of mud were
elected from the bottom of the lake at the
first outbreak, and carried against the
wind in "mud-cloud," covering miles of
nd
valuable property.
This active volcanic region now covers
an area of about sixty miles, but the great
volcano of TOngarirO. sixty miles distant
from the new volcano OF Tarawera, has be-
come active again, and fears are enter
tanned of still further disturbance on ac-
count of the constant earth tremors and
agitated condition of Tampa Lake, a vast
sheet of water which feeds the Waikato
river, and is the drainage reservoir for the
mountain chain of which Tongariro and
the extinct volcanic peak of Ruapeha
forms part Should this lake be suddenly
drained by assure into the volcanic fires
beneath, as was the case with the smaller
lake of Rotomahana, it is impossible to
speculate upon the result. 1t would be a
catastrophe unparalleled in the history OF
the planet perhaps.
The first outbreak began in Tarawera, a
mountain about two thousand feet high, to
the south of Lake Rotomahana, ana in the
volcanic chain which crosses the North Isl
and at this line. This old volcanic belt is
$50 miles in length from Tongariro to
White Island volcano in the Bay of Plenty,
I D-n hot =.
line drawn from north to south. There
were violent earth tremors at WairOa the
village at the lake, which compelled the in
habitants, native and European, to get out
of doors about o'clock in the morning OF
June 10th. On going out an appalling
spectacle presented itself. A huge cloud
mushroom shaped, hung over Tarawera
mountain, from which balls of fire and
flashes of lightning proceeded, while
thunder peals overhead joined the terrific
roar beneath the quaking crust of earth
upon which they stood. Suddenly the side
of the mountain opened, belching forth
fire and flame, lava and rocks, and disclOs-
ing an enormous crater, while dust was
thrown high in the air. and carried in a
cloud to the coast and along a vast extent
of country, obscuring the sun when it
arose and turning day into night nearly a
hundred miles away.
While this stupendous war of fire on
earth and sky was in progress, the specta-
tors were overwhelmed with a new and I'M
looked for calamity. A great fissure must
have drained Lake Rotomahana, or the
bottom of the lake gave way for the world
famed terraces and lake disappeared to-
gether, and craters were formed which
threw out in few hours millions of tons
of liquid mud, burying everything, and
DESTROYING at least 100 lives, one of the
victims being an English tourist. Whole
native villages were destroyed, and the en-
tire face of the country was altered in a
moment. 1t is a remark able fact that
while the mud cloud" worked to wind
ward the dust cloud was swept sea-ward by
a hurricane over the settled country.
Thousands of sheep and cattle must perish,
although they are being got away to Auck-
land as fast as possible.
The noise of the explosion was heard in
Auckland, 40 miles distant, like E.avy
cannonading; it was heard at points in the
south at greater distances. There are three
active craters in the peaks of Tarawera
two of which have been extinct from time inn
memorial, and one has been newly formed.
The natives have no tradition of its ever
having been active, and their legends go
back FIVE hundred years. 1t was "tapu,
being used as their burial place for centu-
ries. On the top of Tarawera were thou
sands of bleaching skeletons before this
eruption. The glare of its fires is seen for
more than a hundred miles. In one
section of the bottom of Lake RotOma-
hama fifteen active volcanoes have been
counted Building up cones, being i'll state
OF the greatest activity. The extent of the
catastrophe and all the changes wrought
cannot be known for some time. That it
has ruined the Hot Lakes of New Zealand
as a great sanitarium cannot be doubted
Nature in her caprice has destroyed in u
moment the most beautiful of all her
works, and replaced it with desolation and
death.
TO-dRy's programme.
The Committee on the Fourth of July
has issued a fine programme for cele-