ERUPTION OF TARAWERA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1273, 25 June 1886, Page 2

ERUPTION OF TARAWERA

Rotorua, June 24.

There has been a heavy north-esster hero to-day, and it has be n blowing and rainiru' without intermission all Jay. .>.. enquiries have been made respecting the weli-Koown Terrace guides, Kate and Sophii, I may say that Kate had relinquished the guide business owing to deatnoß3, and is living at Roorua. Sophia escaped with the fugitives from Wniroa, j and is living with her children at path Ohinemutu. It has transpired to day that, notwithstanding the warnings given by the fate of Way’s Waireaexpedition, MessrsMinnelt, Gregory and Batty went to Wairoa yesterday, and no communication was received from them, nor have they returned to Kalteriria, It is supposed they are stopping quietly at Wairoa till the present galo has exhausted itself. M’ Johnston, the Goveroinent Agent, has however deemed it prudent to despa’c' 1 ). m"table Cavan igh to morrow to look

them up and ascertain their position. Wi'.h the present pitiless storm going' on they must have an awful time of it, hemmed in amid the VVairoa avalanche' anc mud glaciers. Unless the Government put an end to this daily tempting of Providence human life will eventually be sacrificed. The contractors for the Rotorua wa'er | works reported today t' Mr Stalfroy. Inspecting tungineri, that in cutting a pipe track up the aide of Pukeroa lull they had, on reaching a depth of 2ft, come upon ground so hot that they were compelled to desist from standing in the trench and digging

8 pm. Soma shocks of earthquake were felt to-day—one, a sharp one, at 3 p.ra. Th 5 earth tremors atSu'phur point are almost continuous. A telephone massage recived from '!'aheke to-night says that severe shocks were felt at Rotoiti at three o’clock this ifternoon. Land slips are reported by George Frss<*r, telegraph lineman, half-s----mile on the Rotorua side of Moumab idge The Tepuke route is expected to be cleared off the road to-morrow morning. A report came in to-day, brought by a Native from Wakarewarewa, that the oil | bath was throwing up atones and mud to a height .if 20ft, and the large boding lagoon at Papatanui uuddonlj foil 2ft, and role t' its old level, falling and ri-i'g through out the day. A Native pobcem m, Uewiri Gam, went ott to investigate the report, and oa his re’urn to-n ght stated that the report was perfectly true, and on Sundiy rni !day a similar phenomena occu ttd at the Groat Kuciri _ Cauldron which suddenly subsided two feet in h t an hour, and returned to us form r level and to the state if ac ivhy which it lm presented since the Tarawe-a eruption Information was received this evening from some of ihesanatorium staff that two fresh places have broken out at Whak areWarewa. Messrs Rush and Hinds report that the place where they used to cook at Whakarowarewa has dried up, and is now throwing up atones Some more residents in Rotorua are leaving, unable to bear the mental strain through the earth tremors and the vague undefined feeling of apprehensi m. Considerable anxiety is felt hero to see Dr Hector’s report oa the late volcanic eruptions published. It might allay probably much of tho uneasiness prevailing, \ rumor is current, though I have not been able to trace it definitely to any particular quarter, that Dr Hector has recommended the removal of the Government township to a more suita-toe silicon :ho Awarua side of the Onniemutu. ibo insurance companies appear to bo chary of taking > i»ks at Rotorua. One company has already cancelled a now policy and returned the premium. Mr R. Salmon has re'arned here from Taapo and a visit to Tougari .o, Jle informs me that Tongariro is covered wi h mow, and not more active than usua , only a thin column of steam issuing from ■ho crater of Ngaruahoe. Ruapehu is w’’oliy enveloped in snow, and no steam is yet to bo soon, neither have the Taupo people observed any. The ivaimanawa .noun ain ran re is also covered, and the higher plains as far as Rnnan: a, even to I'anpo, are partly covered. Ho wade dose tr.q dries from T.Mipi and ’lokauo people about T-mgarsr.'. ami aU agree ■■ere is no perceptible difference tho vnlcaoic discharge. During

tho late outbreak at Tarawera and t m:.o;!\ah-»na of on the earth tremors h-tvo h.'en tess, nod dariu<: last week, wtii e worn frequ. nt at Rotorua, the residents at. Taupe were entirely free from them l ive l.ohiue aprin.,3 and ge; sits, of the -,ffi ;hhorlvtnd have ex’ii .tied no difference

of late in either volume, color or tempera.' are, with tho exception of tho Crow’s geyser, rvhioh is ipnoier, accounted ■‘or'v.y tho fact of the Waikato River being unusually low, allowing the lower gi on the verge of the tivor fall ■j o >o . Hoiokinn, or Bitter Lake, is In its usual condit'.n „

A later telephone message from Rotoiti dates that the tidal wave cn the lake oso the -table of BVaw’a Lintel, i’aheke

—a distance of 107yds, and a ditfe once in level of 3ft. The residents di 1 not iee the wave advancing, but, on rushing

out, saw it rec. ding. Ai. a meetim' of residents at Rotorua m day, votes of thanks wore passed to the working parties and others who assisted on the morning of the crop iou, and •he members of tun bo it expedition, f >r lacertaining the fate of the Ariki settlement A committee win appointed to invostigatj the losses of tho Wairoa

ififope in survivors, and report on oecessitouJ cases requiring reuef. No doubt all parts of tho colony will aes sf is the disaster may ho regarded as a colonial one. The tvaniu of tho Natives cir tho present have been supplied trom various sources, but tho Bjuropeans sur vivors hate are stilt urene ift t.