The eruption of Mt Tongariro in mid-November 1892 made headlines around the world.
No one knew Tongariro as well as Henry Hill of Napier, who had climbed and explored the volcano many times.
It was after analysing the craters forming at Te Mari in 1890 that Hill asked "whether the opening of the shafts of immense depth is the forerunner of volcanic action".
He was right. After the 1892 Tongariro eruption at Te Mari, Hill wrote another paper for the Royal Society of New Zealand where he described his New Year's morning ascent to assess the crater and the damage caused.
When Napier was covered in volcanic dust in 1896 following further volcanic activity on Tongariro, it was Hill who gathered specimens of the dust from around the city, including from an Ahuiriri resident who had collected several bottles of dust from the roof of his house.
Henry Hill was an early graduate of the University of New Zealand, with a major in geology.
He came to Napier in 1878 and, by 1887, was made a Fellow of the Geological Society, London. This was largely in recognition of his research on the volcanoes of the central North Island.
He spent years traversing the Kaiangaroa Plateau and was a regular commentator on volcanic activity and earthquakes.
Hill published at least 39 scientific papers on these and other subjects over 50 years.
However, this was mainly work he did in his spare time as Henry Hill was the first senior inspector of schools for Hawke's Bay (1878-1915). He was also Mayor of Napier (1914-18).
The logistics of mounting regular scientific visits from Napier to Tongariro and the other volcanic peaks called for careful planning.
Hill was aware that earning the trust of Tuwharetoa cleared the way for his own expeditions.
He did this through regular contact with the local iwi at Waipahihi, staying on the marae on his way to and from the volcanic plateau from as early as 1879.
This meant that Henry Hill needed to share with them, the nature, scope and protocols for his work so that they could be assured of his respect for their cultural stewardship over the land.
In turn, he might be trusted with tribal knowledge about the lands, weather patterns and changing features of the landscape he wished to explore.
At a time when many new settlers dismissed such knowledge as "mythical", Henry Hill took seriously the information that was imparted and interspersed within a number of his published papers makes reference to the importance of Maori knowledge in tandem with his geological findings.
Hill was not alone on such expeditions. On the 1892 Tongariro climb, there were six in his party including women members of his Napier-based family, two of them his children.
The advice of the local chief was much appreciated by Hill, who recorded that having left at seven in the morning with one day's rations each, "we were not long in reaching this place, and we found to our great delight that the travelling was comparatively easy; so much so, in fact, that the ladies could ascend the mountain by this track without much difficulty".
He then goes on to document the dimensions of the crater, of the extent of the eruption, details of the gases, sulphur and mud comparing these observations with his notes taken in March 1890 when he last climbed Tongariro.
He ends the paper with: "Our knowledge of volcanic phenomena does not allow of a prediction, and time alone will enable us to determine whether Te Mari is beginning or ending a career of volcanic activity."
It would take until August 2012 for Tongariro to rumble once more.
Full papers available from http://rsnz/natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz - 24/ - 00 - 00 - 004620.html)
Professor Kay Morris Matthews of EIT Hawke's Bay is the biographer of Henry Hill and has written articles on his role as educationalist and as a scientist.