Evening star., 1899-11-07
A NEW ZEALAND yEsUyIUS.
The Whole Aspect of the Country
Changed I'm Six Hours.

From the Windsor Magazine.
The white terraces of Rotomahana rose
up in a series of twenty platforms IN the
form Of a gigantic stairway. Each terrace
was perfectly horizontal and Of dazzling
whiteness- The top step was vertically
eighty feet above the base and sat 300
feet back. From every platform bubbles
copious clouds of steam. A stream of boil
ing water continually flowed from the gey-
sers. and as it fell slowly from tier to tier
the silicates with which the water was
heavily charged became deposited. on its
exposure to the air. in wonderful lace-worI
designs of infinite variety and of dazzling
whiteness and purity were formed. Not
far from the white terrace was another
termed the Pink Terrace" where, owing
to some coloring substance in the siicious
waters falling from the geysers. the depos-
its were Of a delicate pink hue, from which
was derived the name Pink Terrace"
Unfortunately New Zealand no longer
possesses this unique spectacle, for the
terraces are no more. The various agencies
of nature which originally built up such
curious forms served I'm turn to destroy
them. Mr.. Falconer gives a graphic de-
scription of the event. He was residing
at that time about forty miles distant from
Tarawera. In 1856, on June 10, the night
was clear and calm. Heavy rumbling
sounds like rolls Of distant thunder filled
the air, but there no very great alarm.
The next day dawned dull and gloomy.
About 7:3O O'Clock the morning grew dark
er and light gray ash. very fine, began to
fall. He says that, although they surmised
an eruption was taking place in the Hot
Lake district, there were no definite It'd
ings to that effect, so that he could only
" ait to see what would happen. BY the
aid of a lantern he succeeded I'm cropping
his way to the telegraph office. and there
he learned that a serious disturbance was
taking place at Tarawera and Rotomahana.
About IL o'clock the darkness lifted. All
round the ground was covered with thin,
filmy pail of fine ash to the depth of half
an inch, and ii was afterward found that
the intense darkness was caused by a thick
cloud of dust blown out by the volcano TO
a height so tremendous that IT passed above
Tauranga and dispersed over the country
some miles away.
The manifestation was accompanied by
intense cold, the thermometer registering
five degrees of frost. This is explained by
the fact that the columns Of steam Us they
came kissing out of the craters expanded
they ascended and absorbed their own
heat, which became latent so that the heat
was abstracted from everything near. A
day or two later the government geologtst
arrived at Tauranga, and preparations TO
inspect the seat of the disaster were push
ed rapidly forward. On the fourth day
after the eruption. the party arrived at
Wa!roa, the Maori village. There was
scarcely vestige of the settlement to be
seen, the whole village had been crushed
beneath volcanic lava, and the charred and
battered remains of the little village church
and other buildings protruded above the
surface of the deposit. which at first meas
ured four feet in thickness, but afterward
settled down to half that depth. One young
Englishman was killed, well the
Maoris who lived in the district and exact
ed tolls from visitors to the Hot Lakes.
The scene was the widest imaginable. The
air rushed over the land with cyclonic fury,
uprooting, tearing and breaking trees that
had survived the hail of rocks, leaving here
and there a gnarled and Jagged trunk, de-
nuded of branches and stripped of fits bark
The next day the party set off for Roto-
mahana. As they appI cached the hot lakes
huge cracks, extending hundreds Of yards
In length and about foot in width were
seen in all directions. The scene was one
of the strange grandeur of absolute desola-
ton. The upheaVal of nature had blown
the wonderful terraces to atoms: steam
was rising in dense clouds from one end Of
the area to the other a distance OF about
nine miles. Rotomahana lake was a yawn-
ing caldron from which rose a majestic
column of steam. The ground was COM
with lava from the mountain. The lava
was reduced TO the consistency of -four. 50
that the explorers sank in IT nearly to their
knees. Thus In the space OF time was
North Island suddenly shorn of its most
peculiar natural features. In six hours the
whole aspect of the country was changed t.
and what was one of the most beauflful
spots in the world was transformed into a
barren country carpeted in lava and COW
cred with debris The geysers however
sun abound In profusion. and IL Is possible
In time other terraces may be formed
---% S