NO SERIOUS DAMAGE ON WATERFRONT

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 262, 4 August 1942, Page 4

NO SERIOUS DAMAGE ON WATERFRONT

Compared with the effects of the severe shake in June, little damage was done to the Wellington wharves and harbour board equipment, and normal operations continued at the port yesterday. There was no apparent damage to goods in the wharf sheds. A survey of tlie effects of the two recent earthquakes shows that those buildings which were strengthened after cracking in previous shakes did not suffer at all. Only two of the sheds showed any extensive cracking, aud in one case it is expected that a parapet will have,

to be demolished. On reclaimed land and near the seawall there was slight subsidence, but nothing comparable to what occurred in June. i Ever since the earthquake in June divers have been engaged in examining the under-water structure of the . 'wharves, but no serious defects have been found. MAKING PROPERTIES IN CITY SAFE Was it intended that city main-street property-owners be left to their own devices in the repair of earthquake r damage, asked Or. It. L. Macalister at last night’s Wellington City Council meeting. If so, there might be great delay in making the streets safe again. The mayor, Mr. Hislop, replied that the council’s first duty was to see that the streets were made usable again, and when its workers had done whatever was necessary to ensure this, the owners could make their own arrangements for what else required to be done. Most owners of city buildings had their own architects and advisers. DAMAGE AT PETONE Damage done by the earthquake in the Hutt Valley was comparatively light. The principal new damage in I’etoue was to the New Zealand Motor Bodies’ building at the corner of Jackson Street and the Hutt Hoad, where the whole of the gables on the western wall fell into Te Punt Street. The top of a brick dividing wall of a wooden residence in Jackson Street West came completely away at roof level. The gable of the eastern wall of the old Empire Theatre fell into Petone Avenue. During the June 24 earthquake the western wall of this building suffered badly. The cracks which developed in the June quake in the western wall of the Victoria Hotel opened out considerably on Sunday morning, and several buildings along Jackson Street suffered similarly. A number of plateglass windows in Jackson Street West, which had been replaced during the past fortnight again crashed on to the footpath. A man and his wife who were passing by narrowly escaped injury from falling glass. MORE TREMORS FELT A fairly sharp earthquake was felt by some people in Wellington at 5.10 o’clock last evening. A brief tremor was felt at 10.0 p.m.