Pink and White Terraces

Hokitika Guardian, 13 January 1922, Page 4

Pink and White Terraces

BELIEVED TO BE STILL IN

EXISTENCE. WELLINGTON, January 11. The question has been raised more than once whether the wonderful pink and white terraces were really destroyed l,y the Tarawera eruption in 1886. Mr Alfred Warbrick, the well-known Tourist Department guide, says emphatically they were not. holds that the terraces were submerged to a considerable deptn by the flow of wate r into Lake Rotomahana at the time of the eruption, and that by lowering the level of the lake, which he s ays is easily practicable; the terraces would be revealed again. Mr Warbrick who was one of the first to reach the spot after the eruption, says that if the terraces were blown up fragments of the silica of which they were composed would have been found. None was found. As to how the level of the water in llotomahana Lake might be lowered, A[ r Warbrick says the matter i a a simple one, and has been more than once discussed by engineering authorities. At the present time Rotomahana Lake is 148 feet higher than Lake Tarawera, A 6ft channel cut for half a mile is all that is necessary to connect the lakes. The water would he taken off gradually, and would be carried away by the Tarawera river. If the cutting work were done by hand, the cost would not exceed £6OOO. The B team scoops in possession' of the Public Works Department would cut the canal In a few days. In view of the great value of the wonderful terraces to the Dominion as an attraction, the suggestion is made 'that the Government should undertake ; the work, 1