THE EARTHQUAKE.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2362, 19 January 1915, Page 4

THE EARTHQUAKE.

There ■is probably nothing more appalling in human experience than a great earthquake. At such times men realise their utter helplessness when brought face to face with the great forces of Nature. Feelings of awe, mystery, and terror are aroused, and it is not surprising that in these dread visitations people give way to panic and despair. The sympathy of the whole world goes out to the people of Italy at the. present moment. Towns and villages liave been reduced to heaps of ruins, ..and thousands of lives have been lost. The death-roll is so great that the disaster is said' to surpass that of Messina as far as the low percentage of survivors is concerned. The shock appears to have been felt with varying intensity throughout the whole country, though the southern provinces have suffered most severely. Rome was sharply shaken, and a considerable amount of damage has been done to some of the historic buildings of the Eternal City. According to the latest estimates, the number of lives lost reaches the terrible total of 30,000, which probably, exceeds the actual death-roll of the British Army during the desperato fighting which has now been going on for over five months in France and Belgium, while tho destruction of property is possibly equal to that which would bo caused by a ruthless invading army. Italy has probably suffered more than any_ other European country in historic times from earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The tragic story of the .destruction of Herculaneum and Pompeii haa been told with graphic detail by many writers, and recent excavations at the sites of these buried towns have given the modern world a wonderfully interesting insight into the daily lives of Roman citizens during the first century of the Christian era. In 1857 an earthquake at Naples was responsible for the loss of 20,000 lives, and in 1908 Messina, Rcggio, and many villages in Sicily were totally destroyed by the same agency, the loss of life being estimated at 77,283. The Neapolitan disaster was felt over all Italy south of the parallel of 42 degrees, and is regarded as third in order of severity among the recorded earthquakes of Europe. As regards the Messina catastrophe, it is stated that after the main disturbance, shocks continued to bo felt intermittently for several months, and in certain respects the disaster resembled the Calabrian earthquako of 1783, when 60,000 lives were lost. Tho Lisbon earthquake of 1755 was accompanied by a destructive tidal wave and a fire, the greater part of the city being wrecked. Tho property destroyed was valued at about £20,000,000.. Other great earthquakes and volcanic disasters in recent times are those of Charleston. (1886), where nearly every building was damaged; Assam (1896); Mont Polce (1902), when 20,000 lives were lost; India (1905), with a death-roll. of 20,000; California (1906),. when a kige portion of San Francisco was destroyed; and Valparaiso (1906). Tho destruction of human life and property caused by the earthquake which has just taken place in Italy may not be so great as in the case of the Messina disaster•• but the accounts which have already been published reveal a most heart-rending state of affairs. It will be many years before the devastated areas recover from tho terrible fate which has befallen them.