ALARMING PHENOMENA CONTINUE. GREAT LOSS OF LIFE. Rotorua, June 16.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 157, 19 June 1886, Page 5

ALARMING PHENOMENA CONTINUE. GREAT LOSS OF LIFE. Rotorua, June 16.

Dr. Hector returned lats night covered with mud and dirt. He rouchod Rotomahana by Kareteria Lake. This lake was In the condition already described — funaarolea actively throwing up and catching big atones. Through rifts in the steam glimpses were got of a great crater inside of Taxawera, which was also vomiting out stones and clouds of steam, but no trace of lava. The Steam cloud rises to a height of 11,000 feet. Dr. Hector thinks it foolhardy to approach these fumaroles too nearly until the de- j posits around have settled. T\ear one, where the footsteps of an o^er-curioua excursionist were marked, the strata showed extonsive Cracks, which proved the instability of the ground. A canoe service on Laka Kotokahi was successfully established. The excavations at Wairoa village are practically abandoned. The poods aro not worth the cost of getting out. Te Kepa says all the buried natives who were in whares have been recovered. The others missing are known to have died outside. The Maoris found by Major Mair on the shores of Tarawera would have perished. They bad come over to peek their friends at Te Ariki settlement, unaware that they would get no assistance, And it is doubtful whether they would have got back safely.

THE MAORIS LOST. The following is the Maori o^timato of the deaths of natives caused ü by'tho cruprion :—: — 30 of the Ngatiransitiki, at Moura : 35 of the Tuhourangi, at Ta Aviki ; 14 of the Tuhourangi, at Matakana ; and 15 of the Tuhourangi, at Wairoa ; total, 97.

THE STAOSI PSOP2ET. The old Maori tohunga who buried 104 houra is recovering. He *ays that during his imprisonment ho prayed constantly to the God of the pakehas.

A PROPHECY. It appears that a priest of the N^atipik'io about a fortnight ago prophesied that so many lies had been told at theTahftke Lind <3ourt by the Tahourangi, it wa* likely an earthquake would swallow them up. The tohunga's reputation his increi^ed since his prediction has come off.

A TEIiEGKAPHIC BIiUNDSIS. By an error in transmission, Captain Armstrong's name was telegraphed to England as one of the victims of the Wairoa catastrophe, and anxious inquiries have already been made by cable on the subject. Mr Bainbridge's name v,\n E. Armstrong Bainbridge. The news wa= telegraphed as death of JS. Armstrong Buinbridge, and this was takGn to mean that two person?, viz., E. Armstrong and Bainbridge, had perished.