File:Telegram re- White Island Eruption 1914 (15198879901).jpg

At about 2.30am on 11th September 1914 two loud explosions on White Island were heard as far away as Opotiki. A lahar was triggered, and the miners' quarters on the island were buried under tons of earth and rocks. The miners were working the sulphur deposits on the island for the New Zealand Sulphur Co Ltd, a British company.

On 28 September Matthew Paul, a Mines Inspector and a party of 10 volunteers landed on the island to investigate and look for bodies or possible survivors. In his 3rd October report Paul stated "apparently this blow hole had been blocked, the fores [force] of the confined steam and gases found vent at the line of least resistance, which proved to be in the bed of the old lake [the crater lake had been drained by the sulphur company] ------ in direct line with the men's quarters and that everything was swept out to sea ------The new crater appears to be about one and a half chains in length [about 30 metres] and is very active giving off fierce sulphurous fumes and frequently flames can be seen, also a loud rumbling noise."

The volunteer party, some of whom had walked right round the island, found no surviviors or bodies, and the only debris found had been washed onto the beach below the former location of the buildings, it was covered in fine sand and large boulders.

Matthew Paul concluded "there will always be a serious risk to life ----- therefore in my opinion further working of this deposit should be prohibited."

The missing men were listed as - AJ McKim, S Young, D McMurtrie, J Byrne, R Chappell, R Lamb, H Williams, W Donovan, A Brennan, R Waring, L Kelly.

The image is of a telegram listing the eleven missing men, two of whom were not fully identified at the time.