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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 67

Description of the District

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Description of the District.

The district in which the volcanic eruptions took place is hilly and open, hut with a band of forest running through the lake country to the Patetere plateau. North of Lake Tarawera this band of forest is about ten miles broad, but west of Rotorua it attains a much greater breadth; it is, however, broken by a strip of open land round Rotorua and the west end of Rotoiti. South of Lake Tarawera the country is covered with fern and stunted tea-tree (Leptospermum).

The highest points are—Mount Tarawera (3,609ft.), on the south-east side of Lake Tarawera; Ngongotaha (2,554ft.), west of Ohinemutu; Haroharo (2,529ft.), south of Rotoehu; Whakapongakau (2,524ft.), between Rotoiti and Lake Otakaina; and Moerangi (2,440ft.), north of Rotokakahi. The lakes form two groups, the first of which contains Rotorua, Rotoiti, Rotoehu, and Rotoma. These lakes lie in the same valley, and were formerly united, but have been separated by the lowering of the drainage-channel. They perhaps owe their origin to eruptions from Haroharo blocking up the valley. The second group includes Otakaina, Okereka, Tikitapu, Rotokakahi, Tarawera, and Rotomahana; they may possibly owe their origin to former eruptions of Mount Tarawera. The heights of the lakes above the sea are thus given by Dr. von Hochstetter : Rotorua, 1043ft.; Tarawera, 1,075ft.; Rotomahana, 1,088ft.; but these figures are probably too low, as he made Ngongotahi to be 2,282ft., or 272ft. less than the height given by the Survey Department.

Hot Springs.—Nearly all the mud-volcanoes, fumaroles, siliceous springs, and solfataras of New Zealand are included in a zone, about twenty miles broad, running north-north-east from Lake Taupo; bounded on the north-west by the Patetere page 4 plateau, and on the north-east by the Kaingaroa Plains. To this zone Dr. von Hochstetter applied the name "Taupo zone:" in it he recognized three parallel lines. The first is the main line which extends from Tongariro to White Island : it includes Rotomahana as well as the hot springs of Kakaramea and the valley of the Waiotapu. The second line is about four miles to the north-west of the first, and includes the springs on the north-west side of the Paeroa Range and at Orakei-Korako. The third line is fourteen miles from the first, and passes through Ateamuri, Ohinemutu, Tikitere, and Rotoiti.* He considered that the second and third of these lines were due to faults by which the low land between the Paeroa Range and the Patetere plateau had been thrown clown; the steam escaping through the fissures produced by the dislocations,

The recent volcanic eruptions took place on the first line. The new craters are divided into two groups : (1) on Mount Tarawera, (2) on the plains from the foot of the mountain through Rotomahana and the valley of the Haumi nearly to Lake Okaro.

Observers.—On the night of the eruption the only Europeans on the south and cast of Tarawera were at Galatea, on the Rangitaiki River, sixteen miles from the mountain; but the place lies low, and the mountain cannot be seen. On the north-west side European observers were at Wairoa (seven miles), Rotorua (fifteen miles), and Lake Rotoiti (eighteen miles). From near Wairoa the whole of Mount Tarawera can be seen, but from Rotorua the south-west end of the mountain (Tarawera proper) is hidden. Prom Rotoiti the view is entirely cut off by Whakapongakau.

* "New Zealand," p. 431.

"New Zealand," p. 400. He here places Rotomahana on the same line as Orakei-Korako.