VICTIMS OF THE TARAWERA ERUPTION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 465, 5 August 1909, Page 3

VICTIMS OF THE TARAWERA ERUPTION.

Some Maoris recently examined a hill near Lake Okareka, in the Hot Lakes district, where it was known a number of Maori people were living on the night that the Tarawera eruption took place, over twenty-three years ago, with the object of ascertaining how many perished there during that catastrophe- After searching for some time they found, at a depth of five feet below the surface, the remains of eighteen human beings, and from the position in which some of the skeletons were found it is evident that the parents in their love for their children, made every effort to protect them. In the embrace of one adult were the skeletons of two children, whose heads had been crushed in by some falling object. None of the skulls of the adults showed any signs of having been injured, and it is surmised that their death must have *been a slow and painful one'; that they were hemmed in in their whare by the scoria which fell during the eruption, and as it gradually increased in height all hope of escape was abandoned. The roof of the whare appeared intact, indicating that it had withstood the great weight that it had been called upon to bear. The remains were not removed, but were rearranged and carefully covered up again.