"MOUNT HASZARD" A FICTION.

Kumara Times, Issue 3028, 17 July 1886, Page 2

"MOUNT HASZARD" A FICTION.

The Wellington correspondent of the Chtistchurch Press telegraphed on the 12th as follows :—« The Minister f'»r Mines'has received a telegram from Professor Hutton, asserting that •Mount Haszard is a fiction.' This will probably lead to some sharp controversy when the report comes in." A writer in the New Zealand Herald is rather disposed to be merry at Dr. Hector's expense, and recently pub. lished the following paragraph on this subject :—" It is very gratifying to see that the Government Geologist, Dr. Hector, is pursuing his investigations at Wellington into the recent volcanic eruptions at Rotomahana. The Evening Post says that 'Dr. Hector reports that the volcanic cone which has heen thrown up on the side of Lake Rotomahana by the recent volcanic disturba nee is already 600 feet high, and is daily adding to its stature. Dr. Hector has given it the name of 'Mount Hazard.' It is a hazardous statement, at any rate, but doubtless the great scientist would not venture oo such a declaration unless he saw ihis growing mountain with his own eyes, and now T cin understand why it was that he was in such histe to get back to Wellington in order that he' might watch the growth of the stature of this mountain from a suitable distance; so that with all his scientific apparatus around him he might take accurate bearings of its stpendous growth. The fact that it was not visible to the eyes of any other explorer is nothing whatever to the point, and if Dr. Hector evolved it out of the depths of his own moral consciousness, it only shows what it. is to be a scientist. Indeed it is proahlu that it was the awful and mysterious growth of the stature of ihis ' Mount Hasztrd' that created such a profound impression on the savant, that he had the most direful forebodii)»s of the fate of the district; and as his investigations in the Museum at Wellington show that its stature is still increasing, the phantom mountaiu, like the Flying Dutchman, is verily pregnant with fate. Let us hope that the wand of science in the hand of Captain Hut ton, and with the incantations of his colleagues, Professors Brown and Thomas, will exorcise this demon mountain, from the site of Rotomahana, and dispel some others of the weird illusions with which the Government savart has invested the scenes of the eruptions."