WANGANUI.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 103, 25 July 1846, Page 3

WANGANUI.

The K&therine Johnstone arrived on Wednesday with Messrs. Nixon, Davy, and Churton, passengers. The natives are described as being quiet and well disposed. Those who left Wanganui under Napara and Maketu, are notorious as being the most troublesome in the district, and it would be a great advantage to the settlers there if means could be taken to prevent their return. The settlers' in the confidence that the land claims would be speedily settled, agreeably to the pledge given by his Excellency, had commenced putting in wheat, and it is supposed that the amount of cultivation in the district will be fully equal to last year. The Rev. R. Taylor had returned from Taupo with the Wanganui natives who accompanied him. The natives of that district have no intention whatever of joining Rangihaeata, and profess to entertain a friendly feeling towards the settlers. The winter in the Taupo country is described to have been very severe, and the cold intense ; large plains in the neighbourhood of Taupo being covered with deep snow. In addition to the account we gave in a former number of the avalanche or •landslip at Taupo, we are able to furnish the following particulars : — It appears that the primary cause of the ruin was an immense landslip from a mountain near one thousand feet above the level of the lake, which, falling down, choked up the gorge through which a stream escaped from a little valley, and which, being converted into a lake, when it had attained a certain depth, burst its barrier, and carrying down trees, stones, and mud, swept away every vestige of vegetation, and in its course emptied several of the reservoirs of the boiling springs which thus increased tbe evil. The distance of the mountain from the lake is about three miles. The stratum of mud is now from ten to twelve feet deep, and at the time of the eruption in its semi-liquid srate must have been much more. The catastrophe in its main features closely resembles a similar occurrence which took place in the Val de Bagncs about twenty years ago. We are happy to learn that information has been received of the safe arrival of Captains Wilmot and Nugent at Auckland.