162 
The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. 
[Sept. 
A NEW ZEALAND DEPARTMENT OF VOLCANO 
RESEARCH. 
By T. A. Jaggar 
Objects of the Work. 
The physical study of the gases, temperatures, and movements of the 
ground about active volcanoes, continuously maintained, has been recently- 
advanced by permanent stations in Japan, Italy, Hawaii, and the Philip¬ 
pines. The object is threefold : (1) To educate growing populations in 
precaution concerning volcanic eruption ; (2) to train experts in prediction 
of disaster as aids to the Government ; (3) to advance science for the 
benefit of the world. 
Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are closely connected, and co¬ 
operation in volcanology among Pacific nations is a form of insurance for 
the protection of invested capital. Such disasters as the San Francisco, 
Guatemala City, and Valparaiso earthquakes, with real estate to the value 
of hundreds of millions of pounds destroyed in the last fifteen years, cannot 
be regarded lightly. £200,000,000 was the loss in San Francisco alone. 
The menace in New Zealand has been demonstrated by numerous 
small volcanic disasters at Ngauruhoe, Waimangu, and White Island ; by 
numerous local earthquakes over an area extending from Gisborne to 
Christchurch ; and by two great disturbances of world-wide importance— 
the earthquake at Wellington in 1855, and the eruption of Tarawera in 
1886. 
In Savaii, of the Samoan Islands, there was a prolonged and disastrous 
lava-eruption from 1906 to 1911. In some sense, the line of profound 
deeps of the ocean and upbuilt volcanic islands of the Tongan Group connect 
Savaii and New Zealand volcanicallv. 
Forecast of volcanic eruption is an accomplished fact, and the precision 
of such forecasts at the permanent observatories above mentioned will 
increase in just such measure as they mutually assist each other with 
their published journals. Therefore a volcanic observatory should publish 
a journal at least once a month, and by experimental work, guided by 
trained physicists, the routine recording should be incessantly improved 
and adapted to local conditions. 
In New Zealand great volcanic disasters may be prepared for and 
expected at long intervals. An explosion at White Island of the Tarawera 
type would wreck the shores of the Bay of Plenty with a tidal wave. 
Krakatoa, in 1883, killed thirty thousand people on the adjacent beaches 
of Java and Sumatra. As for earthquakes, Wellington is an earthquake 
centre, and the 1855 catastrophe repeated in the new city of brick and 
stone buildings is a prospect not pleasant to contemplate. 
The engineers would do well to make exhaustive studies of what 
happened to the various structures of masonry and wood in San Francisco, 
Messina, Guatemala, and Jamaica. Kingston has an excellent new-con - 
struction law, framed in 1907. Tidal waves from off-shore earthquakes are 
to be expected, for the late Mr. Hogben has clearly shown that earthquake 
centres lie east and west of New Zealand under the sea. 
The length of the intervals between major and minor dangerous times 
is a matter for the volcano observatory to determine. For the benefit 
of business men, who may think volcano-observing is like geological 
