1920 .] 
Jaggar.—New Zealand Volcano Research. 
163 
mapping, let me explain that the two are quite distinct. The observa¬ 
tory deals with figures, measurements, changes, processes, statistics, and 
averages. These concern analysis of the gases, numbers of quakes, tilting 
of the ground, precise levels, temperatures of vents, shifting of vents, and 
minute tremors. At the same time comparative measures of the tides, 
atmospheric temperature and pressure, rainfall, and wind, and of the stresses 
set up in the earth by the heavenly bodies, yield data of the utmost 
importance bearing on prediction and warning. 
The ideal volcano-observer is thus a physicist, a statistician, and an 
astronomer ; he is, in short, a geophysicist, a man aiming ultimately at 
the precision of the geodetic -.surveyor, but compelled by the complexity 
of his science and the turbulent out-of-doors character of his laboratory 
to use rough-and-ready methods. What he is studying is the lava-column 
underground ; he has no other object than to interpret its movements and 
the physical controls which govern it. 
The live lava-column is always there, ready to burst forth and devastate 
the land, highly charged with explosive gas. The dwellers of Rotorua, 
Tauranga, Whakatane, and Ohakune live over it, and in some sense 
Wanganui, Te Kuiti, New Plymouth, Napier, Gisborne, and even Auckland 
are within the belt that confines the sleeping monster. 
It may be thought that this is theoretical matter that the geologists 
and scholars know all about. This is a delusion. There is not even a 
compiled statement of the sequence of the vaporings of Ngauruhoe ; there 
is no diary of small felt earthquakes ; there is no list of Waimangu 
eruptions and their times ; there are no serial photographs of White Island 
showing the density of its fuming in successive months or years. The 
writer knows of no analysis of the sulphurous gas rising in hundreds of 
places at Whakarewarewa and Wairakei, and probably no measurements 
of temperature have been made since the time of Hochstetter. And yet 
these places are rare treasures of nature’s building—shafts many miles deep 
ready dug in this comer of the globe, and ready to yield priceless infor¬ 
mation when once they are harnessed for the benefit of science and humanity. 
No one can assert that they may not yet be harnessed to furnish power or 
light or heat. 
Equipment and Cost. 
The precedents for volcano observatories are the Royal Vesuvian 
Observatory ; the Taal Observatory, erected in the Philippines in 1912 
after the disaster at Taal Volcano ; two stations on Asarna, in Japan ; 
and the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory at Kilauea Crater. 
The buildings for such a station may cost anything from £500 to £3,000 
or more, according to the scale of the work and the size of the staff. £1,000 
should build a suitable house of five rooms and a seismograph cellar in such 
a place as Waimangu, to become a central recording-station for the New 
Zealand work. 
The running-expenses and purchase of equipment may be lumped 
together for the first five years of experimental work, and £1,000 per year 
would be a fair allowance. If the work could be under the supervision 
of the' Laboratory of Physics of Victoria College, all of the apparatus 
might well be made in the excellent shops of that laboratory, and the 
division of labour between the University and the Government should 
prove profitable to both. The product of research in volcanology would 
furnish excellent teaching-material for students of geophysics, and a 
University equipment in men and workshops is the only available source 
in New Zealand for skilful physical experimentation. 
