TAURANGA IN TOTAL DARKNESS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2173, 12 June 1886, Page 2

TAURANGA IN TOTAL DARKNESS.

|Tbe following waa issued as an Extra from this office on Thursday morning :— ] The telegraphist at Rotorua wires officially :—: — i

Rotorua, 8 a.m. We have all passed a fearful night here, and the earth has been in a continual quake since midnight. At 2.10 a.m. there was a heavy quake, then a fearful roar which made all run out of their houses, and a grand yet terrible sight for those^so near as we were presented itself. Mount Tarawera, close to Rotomahana, became suddenly an active volcano, belching out fire and lava to a great height. The eruption appears to have extended itself to several places southwards. A dense mass of ashes came pouring down here at 4 a.m., accompanied by a suffocating smell as from the lower regions. The immense black cloud which extended in a line from the lake to Paeroa mountain was a brilliant massof electricity at intervals all night, and is still the same. Between the roar of the thunder the roaring of three or four different craters, and the stench and the continual quaking of the earth, the surroundings are beyond description. Several families left their homes in their nightdresses with whatever they could seize in the hurry, and made for Tauranga. Others more lucky got horses and left for Oxford. Judging from the quantity of ashes and dust hero, I fear serious results to the people at Wairoa and the natives' r6und Tarawera Lake. The fearful aspect of affairs is just as bad now (8 a.m.) as it was- all night. 1 have sent all my family away to Oxford this morning by special buggy, and if matters don't improve during the day shall follow them for a day or two. Hundreds of new boiling springs have broken out all round here, some in the middle of the roads.