EXTINCT OR ACTIVE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2095, 1 June 1907, Page 1

EXTINCT OR ACTIVE.

The increasing activity of our volcanoes and thermal springs is giving rise to many gloomy predictions as to a great blow-up. Ngaruhoe is certainly more violent, and a recent expedition discovered the crater had completely changed its character and there were evident traces of the demolition of the surrounding rocks. Jt was also stated that Ruapehu was also active. Now the latter mountain has a IhJ'p filling up its crater, 'aiui’would ' therefore bo ‘imagined to have retired from active business as a volcano, and authorities stated that probably no change bad occurred in it. But a surveyor who for months has camped at the loot of the volcanoes and studied them carefully holds another opinion. He states that, about a month, ago, lie saw donso clouds of steam rising from, apparently, above the crater bike. Tlie n'ext day, a wido expanse of white snow on the mountain-side Was black with ashes. The query is —Where did these conic from? The theory of the surveyor is that a new crater has broken out on Ruapehu—ap idea that 'cun only he proved by ap ascent of the mountain. All a|>out Tokaauu there is a marked activity in the hot springs, somo of which have risen to such a tempera-

ture that they, are unable to be used. Not so long ago, too, a new geyser, with boiling water rising to .hundreds of feet, broke out in the middle of the village. A feeling of insecurity must be. felt where it is possible to Wake up with a new hot spring playing beside your, bed, and though the natives take all these phenomena as a. matter of course, it is quite impossible not to entertain a certain disquiet as to what may happen in a place where the . crust of the earth is so uncomfortably thin.

: THE EVIL OF THE TOHUNGA. Notwithstanding all our modern' laws and officials, the Maori tohunga still exists and flourishes in his death-dealing, through ' methods of ignorance and superstition. In a little Maori village, not far from Atramuri, a Maori girl who'was ailing was placed under the treatment of an old tohunga. The first thing the ignorant old man did was to place the child for the greater part of the night in a cold creek that ran past his whare. Then she was taken into the whare and beaten all over wtili .sticks; The object of the'beating with sticks was to drive the evil spirits out of her body. A European who chanced to go into the whare

afterwards saw the child’s body was covered with bruises. When he ~-u »ic—i)imn,~!.lin—scene the tohunga was. gripping Ills J ) u... throat to kesrthe devils that he had beaten opt from re-entering her body. The visitor seized the tolniiiga and fluiig him across the whare. The child died next day, Nqt long ago

there was a case near Taupo in which \a woman was done to death by a to-

hunga. In this case a constable took proceedings, the body was exhumed, and an inquest, held. It was shown that the woman’s skull had been fractured, but- the jury returned a verdict that tlic woman died of fright. At the same village as is referred to in the first case, another girl is now being slowly done to death by the old tohunga. I remember seeing this girl when I was in the district a few years ago. She was a pretty little child—a half-caste. The same tohunga who killed tho other girl is now treating her. His “treatment” consists mainly in feeding her on strips of raw pork. People -who have soon her recently state that the girl is in a terrible state. Probably it is not yet too late to save her life if the authorities take prompt action and the old tohunga gets his deserts. Those statements are made {to me bv reputable persons, with a view to their publicity ill tho interests of common humanity.