ADVENTUROUS CAREER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 166, 29 May 1940, Page 6

ADVENTUROUS CAREER

FAMOUS GUIDE MR A. WARBRICK The death oJ' Mr Alfred Warbriek brings to a close a life of strange hazards and adventures equalled by few in New Zealand or even in the South Seas, the home ol' adventurers. For 45 years chief Government guide at Rotorua, MV Warbriek had an unrivalled knowledge of the thermal districts. He was responsible for much of the pioneering work in the planning of tourist trips in the thermal district anil was entrusted with many important guiding tasks by successive managers of the Tourist Department. Mr "Warbriek was 30 years old. Ixi his younger days he had been a great athlete, yachtsman, and footballer, and was, in fact, a member of the first Maori football team to tour England in ISBB. Alfred Patchett Warbriek was born on the shores of Lake Rotomabana near the famous White Terraces 011 February 24, 18(50, but his earliest memories were of Taurangn, where his father was in business. His father had settled as a trader at Matata on his arrival from England 111 1549 and his mother was a chieftainess of Ngati-Rangitihi, a subtribe of the Arawa. She traced her ancestry to Tama-te-kapua and was the daughter of the warrior leader Paerau Moko-nui-a-Rangi, distinguished in his daring against the raiding Ngapuhis in the early years of the century. When the Maori King movement was inaugurated, this warrior, Alfred Warbrick's grandfather, was the, second to be • offered the ££®tion of Maori King. He declined- ; IS did Te Amohau of Rotorua, to whom the position was first offered. Alfred Warbrick's Maori name >\f Patiti was an attempt to pronounce Patchett, his second name, and is, literally, translated to "tomahawk." Vivid Account of Eruption.

At the age o[ 14 the young Warbrick went to Auckland with the assistance of Sir Donald Maclean, then Native Minister, to learn the trade of boat building from Mr Charles Bailey, the founder of the well-known firm of Bailey and Lowe. Shortly before the Tarawcra eruption in 1886 he went to Rotorua to set up in business there as a boat builder. The need of keeping a watch on" the family interests when the titles of the Rotomahana block were being investigated by the Native Land Court was also one of the factors which brought liim to a district that he was afterwards to jenow so intimately and that was to ©we so much to him. One of the most vivid accounts cf the Tarawera eruption on the night of June 10, 18S6, is that of Mr Warbrick, who was one of the fast dwindling band of eye-witnesses. He related how a wild pigeon shooting expedition had taken him into the -dense bush between Lakes Tarawera and Rotoiti and how lie was disturbed during the night*by earthquakes. Together with his companions he left the hut and looked out across Lake Tarawera. "I saw instantly that Tarawera mountain had burst out in eruption. It sent up sheets of flaming matter to an enormous height and great quivering masses of fire. The flames went up in quick spasms of explosion. White hot ash and stones and debris were hurled far into the skj'. The ground was rolling* the shaking and jumping ■was ceaseless. We could not stand up without holding on to something. We clung to the l'roht of the slab whare. We tried to speak to each other, but our voices were quite inaudible amid that terrific roar," ho says in his account of the disaster, included in Ms hook, "Adventures in <jcyser]and." Mr Warbrick. was actively associated in the rescue work at Te Wairoa and in the villages round the lake where more than 150 people perished during the eruption. A few weeks later there came his daring descent into the active crater of Rotomahana, an exploit which stands out us probably the most courageous and dramatic in the history of the district. While other members of the parly guided the rope over the edge of the clilf Mr Warbrick lowered himself into the still steaming depths of the crater {hat had once been a lake. At the bottom visibility was fair although ii was intensely ho!: streams of black mud ran here there amid heaps of volcanic debris, but there was no s ; gn of the worldfamed terraees. JJ>. invcs'ig::'rs •; were cut short by a fearfu! rou" which sent him running to the n;p<' Ms sole .lifeline".co-T.cctlrg tha- in-

ferno Avith the Avorld above. As he climbed the hundreds of feet back to liis friends, one corner of the vast chasm burst into violent eruption. It Avas at the suggestion of the Hon. John Ballance thatj he undertook guiding work and in subsequent years took most of the notable visitors to the district from Sir George Grey to Lord and Ladj r Bledisloe around the district. Rowing in a Geyser. Another exploit equal in daring to the descent into the crater was his excursion across the boiling lake of Waimangu in 1903. The lake was then far different from what it is now, for the geyser played frequently to over a height of 1000 feet. Challenged to this act of daring he rowed out on the lake accompanied by a Mr Buckeridge, a visitor to New Zealand. For 12 minutes they were on the cauldron, during which time they depthed the lake as 48 feet. For most of tlie time they were hidden by the clouds of steam "rum the crowd of several hundred people gathered on the shores. As of exacting demoniacal revenge, the gc>3\ser was the cause of four deaths, one of whom was Alfred Warbrick's brother, only a fortnight later. After retiring from the Government service he lived at Whakarewarcwa, where his second wife still survives him. For some years he was in indifferent health and ovi this account went to Auckland about two years ago. Valuable Refugee. Among Jews and others who have led from Germany are men who are vxperts in many spheres and whose oss the Reich is sure to regret. One 'nsiance of this comes from Canada, vhere the great Empire air scheme s centred and where the Trans<:inada Airways system has built up : splendid record for reliability, i'his is attributed to the high s'an- j 'aH or weather forecasting. At llk ' : ! of tins Avork is' one 'of the b"cc Ir.sL wa! her ex perls in the ••or!d—-and be is now training waher forecasters for service both in ."anara and with Canadian air soiiaclrons abroad.