IN ERUPTION.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 June 1923, Page 3

IN ERUPTION.

LATEST CABLE NEWS

AIT. ETNA BREAKS OFT. A TERRTEYING ERUPTION. AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. ROME, June 18. The eruption of Alt. Etna continues, ft i.-> accompanied by such massed noises that it is being likened to the discharge of a thousand massed guns. The inhabitants of Messina City, although. forty miles distant, quitted their homes, and have removed their clients to tlie seashore. A shower of cinders added to their panic. Eventually however, tliev returned to their homes.

Later messages state that l.inguaglossa is almost surrounded by lava. Several houses have collapsed there. The lava stream vaiies from thirty to fortyfive feet in height. Thu largest eruptive crater is at a point called .Monte Neto, A whence the Java stream immediately issued, ft covered a distance of five miles down tlie nearest valley in a- period under eight hours.} This is a record lor a lava, ton cm.

RED HOT STONES. RI.i.ME, June 18. The Italian authorities are organising relief for the icliigees of the Alt. Etna eruption. There are scenes of panic everywhere in Sicily. The women and children are weeping on their knees, appealing to God. and to the Yligin Alary. There is a hail of red hot stones which lias set lire to the vineyards in various directions. This is adding to tlie horror. As the disaster lias occurred in the harvest time, the |easniii- wid lose their ail. After a lug explosion ilii- iinuumg, hut. cindeis were ejected in clouds. An asphyxiating atmosphere envebq e.l the district lor more than ten miles around l.ingmilosti, A large stroiih of railway lias been de.-troyed by the burning lava.

('snlania and Me->.na are yi ready over-congested with fugitives. .Shelter is not available for thousands, who are coming from all directions. Numerous villages and hamlets have been destroyed, the inhabitants having barely time to escape in what clothes thev had on.

POSITION GROWS WORSE. ROAIE. dune 18. It is ollirially estimated that. the number of homeless in tlie All. Etna area is 30,000. Oastigiiujn.* is under dire threat.. Its seventeen tliousan I inhabitants are assembled and ready to flee at a warning from the outposts. A RAIN OF HOT CINDERS. LONDON. .Dine 1!'. Rome messages state that soldiers are engaged in digging trenches in the hope of stopping tlie lava stream Irom Alt. Etna in Sicily. Four new lissures have appeared on the north-east side of the mountain. One has formed a crater, from which lava, is now pouring down and is still erupting though with dimii.riling lon e.

The rate of the lava advance lots been reduced to 23 moire l , per hour.

The stream of lava is cividod into several branches. The lava and dust have reached Taormina, where Die ground is covered with a fine black powder. Red liuf cinders a'o -tiv’.vn O'er tlie ground fur miles.

A stream of lava b.a , arrived at a p ant only cue Kilomelre from C'erm. and il is feared ill,at it "'ill icach l.ingnaglcssa during tin- n'ghU The spectacle of the eruption is terrible. The moinesuc roarings follow eac h other frequent B , ;ml ilw ram of cinders is l.eemniiig nu.ro intense. The Hlgkt of peasants continues, amid scenes of terror. The damage to the vineyards and cultivated lands is alt on <!y estimate:! to amount to several tuilli- n lire. WALL OF MOLTEN LAVA. THO USANI >S 11OM EL ESS. (Received this dnv at 11.10 n.m.) ROME, June 19. Alter a brief period of inaction from eruption Ml Etna, resumed last night. To-day several new craters have been formed, one three kilometres in diameter. A vast molten wall of lava, two kilometres wide and fifty feet high,, inioving towards Giurre, a- town ol twenty-live thousand people, who are ready to leave for Riposte. The village of Caznica has already been destroyed and then' is no longer ali v hope that l.inguaglos.-a can escape. It is now completely evacuated. 1 ava is encroaching from all sides and thousands of people arc homeless, but extensive relief is being organised. Tho King is going to Sicily.