AT WHITE ISLAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 120, 14 October 1914, Page 6

AT WHITE ISLAND.

THE RECENT DISASTER; A VISIT TO THE SCENE. A repreentative of the Auckland Herald who visited Wlbite Island som« days ago writes:— To one who foaa an intimate know ledgo wf the islands before the reeen,; fatality, there is ample evidence that a landslide of incalculable proportions, and not a volcanic upheaval, was the prim.aJiyt cause of the disaster! .Millions «f tons of earth, rock and rubble of inestimable weklht, atlarting from an. elevation; of fully 1000 ft., must have crashed down,' on to the old crajtcr floor and across the recently-drained ilakehed, sweeping the huts and -everything before it until brought up against the high rocky bluff that extends partly across the eastern end of the island. Mute testimony of the groat forcei witih which thig fearful (mass of rock and silt struck ithia buttress can still be seen in the gigantic mudspliash. extending imarev hundred' feet up .the cliff-face-. Whether the dwellings, together witlh. their unfortunate occuflanlte, are still (buried beneath the mass or were swept, out to | sea in t/he wild rush of the overflow, i.j ' open to much speculation.

THE .N!ETW BLOWHOLE. Steam now anises from manv points, along the top of iKhiis.,diir, and noisy jets of varying size issue from among the loose rook, piled up in endlcsr, confusion at its base, over the side of the original blowhole. Naturally, the main interest of the island now centres-round the great blowhole ifhat has found a imw and larger outlet for its pent-up energy in a vast rent situated somewhere about tihe_ centre of the vanished sulphur lake. It is extremely accessible and- presently a magnificent spectacle at a dilstauee, lit is both awe-inspiring and grand viewed at close quarters. Huge volumes of yellow, sulphur-impregnated steam rush up angrily out of ,lh c earth and ascend in whirling clouds that completely obliterate the sun directly overhead. In tile immediate vicinity the sulphur fumes ar e almost overpowering. All metal is instantly discolored, and a sheet of ordinary brown paper exposed* to the,fumes: for a few minutes becomes a nvid pink. Peering into the hwe crevasse when a gust of wand momentarily .brushes thei active volume of steam aside, one sees what may be described as a dark sulphur-encrusted pit, the confined floor showing up in what arc apparently heat-colored patches 'between momentary openings in the steam, where percolating moisture frizzles and hisses lika .the sound of cold water droned upon hot metal. • magnified a thousandfold. <)„ the extron-.e ett from a gnai alyn/lhig cone-like orifice, the rent proper out its vas: volumes of toul steam.

If, as assert,*!, flumes wore to be scon your representative Wiu 110f . f 0! . , Jnjl> <-n'c..u<di to witness the miperh tnec-Uc e out as the stcaiwlouds wh rled .upwards with .A-er-incnv.s'm; fury, tlie eye could occasionally pen - trato ,t.o a lower level, where pinktiiiged vapor, easily discernible, indie.'.'l.ed their nearness.

raly grand and awful in the daylight, the great safety valve must tocsent a stupendous and ne.rve-ti-yin? spectacle at night. •■*>?*■ Shortly ,aft«. r \ an , Kn „ „ oh {] wind caused the steam to defend and every:h:ng in it,< veil of lu-ag-pcnetr-atinj, fog. This made the- remainder of,.the shonl stay decidedly ,tnpleasant. J

If an eruption of a volcanic nature took place .upon White Island, it would l>e caused avhei, the old" blowhole-hlock- <■•- jU'l the accumulaiiing debris wf the Mitlh.-sLde, sought relief for its pcrf-np torcw, and broke through, the w.akjt ton ling the near vienwty of its present o»tI«:; to a dl,„;h of several in,.lL, „". plaer " VWJ for ' :nilla,!jl « n* l '""

. The only living objtvt f olll ,j on {h(l island Wl w a cat. which „, ls lakni k , the mainland.