MAORI VILLAGE OF WAIROA, IN THE HOT LAKE DISTRICT.
hotels for the accommodation of tourists. The church and school are less prosperous than they used to be, as the natives are not as zealous in Christianity as when they were first converted. Soon after the Maori war broke out they hanged one of their pastors, and compelled another to flee to avoid the same fate.[1]
"We were comfortably lodged at one of the hotels, and the next morning took the coach for Tauranga, rejecting the advice of several
- ↑ Shortly after the visit described above, the famous terraces were destroyed by an eruption of Mount Tarawera. Soon after midnight of June 10, 1886, loud explosions were heard and violent earthquakes felt; in a few minutes Mount Tarawera broke out as an active volcano, hurling ashes, dust, and red-hot stones to a great height, and the whole sky in all directions seemed to be aflame. The ashes, dust, and mud were distributed over a wide area of country, some of the dust and ashes falling fifty miles away. The outbreak of Tarawera was followed almost immediately by a terrific outburst at Lake Rotomahana; the water of the lake, with its clay bed and the material of the Pink and White Terraces, was suddenly blown into the air in the shape of an immense mud-cloud followed by steam and smoke. The mud-cloud in its descent buried the surrounding country to various depths, ranging as high as thirty feet. The native villages of Wairoa and Te Ariki were completely covered, and the village of Mourea was bodily thrown into Lake Tarawera and swallowed out of sight. Over one hundred persons perished, the most of them natives. Mr. Hazard, the master of the native school at Wairoa, and four of his children were among the killed.
It was estimated that fifty square miles of country were covered to a depth of three feet and more by the mud, ashes, and stones, and sixteen hundred square miles more or less affected by the eruption or the deposits from it. Stones weighing half a ton and upwards were found nine miles from the scene of the explosion, and some within a mile or less weighed several tons. The explosions were heard eighty miles away, and are described as resembling heavy guns at sea. They continued about three hours, ceasing before daylight; and the night is well described as a night of terror.
