The eruption lasted six hours and caused massive destruction. It destroyed a number of villages and buried the famous silica hot springs known as the Pink and White Terraces. About 120 people, nearly all of them Māori, died.
Events on this Day – 10 June
1889
The first New Zealand kindergarten to educate children, in Dunedin, was based on the ideas of the German educationalist Friedrich Froebel.
1906
Known as 'King Dick', Seddon had dominated New Zealand politics since the early 1890s. His Liberal government established the tradition of state-supported welfare in this country.