518 Transactions. — Geology. 



stick an excellent bed of pure sulphur will be found. Vila is 

 on the Sandwich Island, New Hebrides, and many steamers 

 call there now. The New Hebrides are under English and 

 French protection. (7.) In the Loyalties there are sulphur 

 deposits, belonging now to France. (8.) At Greet Harbour, 

 New Britain, where Germany has a coaling station, there is 

 a sulphur point. Sulphur has been found in this group at the 

 foot of the Mother and Two Daughters Volcanoes. (9.) There 

 are also sulphur deposits on the New Guinea coast. I men- 

 tion these facts now in case sulphur should be in commercial 

 demand. It could form an adjunct to our New Zealand 

 trade. I supplied what information I could upon this point 

 a few years since to some English sulphur-miners, who 

 wanted to dig and refine the deposits of ore in the Pacific. 

 There is also a good deal of sulphur-ore to be obtained in our 

 own hot -lakes district in New Zealand, some friends of mine 

 in Auckland — the Messrs. Nathan — sending down some hun- 

 dreds of tons of it to the port. 



The Island of Niu-afu lies in 15° 34' south latitude, 

 175° 40' 40" west longitude, and belongs to Tonga. Mr. 

 Tarvis, one of our good English colonists in the Pacific, in- 

 formed me that he resided on the island at the time of the erup- 

 tion — about August, 1886. (The great eruption at Tarawera, 

 New Zealand, was in June of that year.) x^bout 7 p.m. the 

 earthquake began by gently swaying the island, and contniued 

 until 12 p.m., to the fright of all the inhabitants — some seven 

 hundred people — who aimlessly wandered about, carrying the 

 old and feeble to the highest land for safety. At 12 p.m. 

 occurred a tremendous report like the discharge of a 60-tou 

 gun, and a great rocket ascended from the lake to a dis- 

 tance of some 800 to 1,000 yards. The shaking of the island 

 then ceased. From the spot where the rocket ascended an 

 active volcano formed, and continued for seventeen days, 

 throwing up sand, stones, and water. The cocoanut- trees 

 were ail ruined by the water and sand, which, falling steadily, 

 and cementing on the leaves, broke them down by the mere 

 accumulation of weight. In different parts of the island the 

 deposit from the volcano averaged 2 ft. to 20 ft., crushing 

 everything beneath it. During the eruption lightning was 

 constantly playing around the island, darting occasionally into 

 the groves of cocoanuts, and smashing down the trees. 



I gathered from Mr. Tarvis, as well as I can remember, 

 that Niu-afu is an island of about thirty miles in circumference, 

 the water of the inner lake being of a mineral nature, and some 

 four or five miles across. The Admiralty instructions only 

 make Niu-afu, or Good Hope, Island three miles and a half 

 north to south and three miles east to west; about 500ft. to 

 600 ft. high, and well wooded to the summit. The centre of 



