Eruptions, Etc.
p. 11 · Read in the full issue
But None in Japan
JAPAN is right in the middle of the world’s worst earthquake belt; but, just at the time when an outsize in earthquakes, in the Japanese archipelago, would be of the greatest possible service to humanity, nothing happens there.
Instead, by the irony of fate, there are eruptions in Hawaii, and a very severe earthquake in the North Island of New Zealand.
Mauna Loa volcano, in Hawaii, ex ploded on April 26, and then displayed its greatest activity since 1881. A great mass of lava flowed slowly towards the large town of Hilo. When it was only eight miles away, US Army planes attacked it with bombs. The flow was diverted and the town saved.
The NZ ’qua,ke, in June, caused enor mous damage in the Wairarapa Valley.
Masterton town was apparently at the centre, and Masterton virtually was wiped out.
Indirect reports indicate that Matupi —the volcano that overhangs Rabaul to the southwards—has been playing up again, ejecting vast clouds of dust and intolerable gases. One hopes this is cor rect. It would be pleasant to think that the Sons of Heaven, in Rabaul, were enduring for a few weeks what the Rabaul folk had to put up with for years.