THE TERRACES.
‘WNE BEYOND RECALL.” GUIDE WARBRICK’S SUGGESTION DISPUTED. TARAWERA DISASTER RECALLED. The suggestion, published in the New Zealand Times, of Mr. Alfred Warbrick, the Tourist Department guide, that the famous pink and white terraces of Lake Rotomahdna were not really destroyed by the terrible Tarawera eruption and could be restored by lowering the -lake by a channel cut to Lake Tarawera, is scouted by some of those who visited the scene at the time of the disaster (writes the Times Auckland correspondent).
It will be remembered by old New Zealanders that several parties who visited the lake within a day or two after the upheaval reported that the torraces had been completely destroyed —blown out with the side of Tarawera on the morning of June 10, 1886, when the fierce eruption was responsible for the deaths of seven Europeans and 97 natives, and the destruction of five native villages and several European habitations.
Writing from Rotorua on June 14, 1886, the Star’s special reporter said: “As far as can be judged of the position of the pink terrace, it is occupied by a crater, fjxfrn which showers of stones are isstiing. The whole aspect of the lake leaves no hope that the terraces have escaped destruction.” Other visitors reported similarly.
Mr. Wfeirbrick’s chief reason for a belief of the existence of the terraces below the water is that “if the terraces had been blown up, fragments of silica, of wjiich they were composed, would have been found. None were found.”
In direct opposition to this, Mr. William Blomfieid, who declares that with a Mr. Steele he was the first to reach the lip of the crater after the disaster, distinctly states that there were fragments of silica, and very large fragments, some of which he brought back to Auckland. “The terraces were blown right out—there’s not the slightest doubt of it,” eaid Mr. Blomfieid. “Steele and I were the only two who went down over the edge of" the crater and stood just above the site of the terrace. We dug up great chunks of the silica blown from the terrace, which had undoubtedly been shattered. We brought a lot of it back to Auckland, and some of it, I think, was sent to the museum. You may take it from me, those terraces are non est.”
The coolness of the Maori in some circumstances is instanced in the case of an old fellow who was at the time estimated to be 100 years of age. He had been buried by the upheaval, and was only dug out after having been entombed for 104 y hours. “When the ashes were scraped off him he rose, shook the dust of the crater off his person, and without giving a look of recognition to anyone, went straight off and had a good feed.” The old chap confided afterwards that he had prayed incessantly for deliverance to the God of the pake’ha—Which should be pleasing information to Ratana, these days. There is also told the tafe of a prophecy —somewhat upfusual to the regular thing in the way of prophecy. a priest of the Ngatipikao about a fortnight previous to the disaster expressed his displeasure at the untruthfulness of some of the Maoris who appeared before the Tah eke Land Court at Tahourangi. He declared that so manylies had been told the court it was more than likely an earthquake would swallow them. “The tohunga’s reputation z has increased since his prediction came off.’ remarked the Star’s correspondent, naively, a few days after the disaster.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19220121.2.104
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Taranaki Daily News, 21 January 1922, Page 12
Word count
Tapeke kupu
593THE TERRACES. Taranaki Daily News, 21 January 1922, Page 12
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Taranaki Daily News. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.