Abstract

The loss of the Pink and White Terraces, the New Zealand Eighth Wonder of the World, was declared by a government surveyor S. Percy Smith on 14 June 1886, four days after the Tarawera eruption when he approached ~4,000 m from his supposed site of Te Tarata, the White Terrace(s). This research follows his loss claim through three parliamentary reports, an audit, five government survey maps and four artworks prepared by Smith from 1886-1894. His evidence is for the first time examined with the aid of a unique survey by Ferdinand Hochstetter, first published during 2016-2023. Alterations across Smith's survey map series, indicate he changed his location for the White Terrace without mention and invented features to support his case, while he was being audited and with government ministers sceptical of his claim. The Māori in Rotorua disclaimed Smith's report but given interracial conditions at this period, colonial bias meant their advice was not in official reports. Reports of Smith's adventitious pre-eruption bearings on the White Terraces are reproduced. The research extends the first evidence-based altimetry for the Rotomahana Basin. Hochstetter's survey location of the White Terrace is strengthened by error ellipses. LIDAR imagery is included for the White Terrace location to assist passive seismic surveying. It also shows the course of the true Kaiwaka Channel, confirming Smith also misidentified the outlet of Lake Rotomahana. It is concluded Smith had no substantive evidence for his claims and engaged in research misconduct. Hochstetter's and recent surveying rebuts his reports.