MORE LABOURERS FOR QUAKE REPAIRS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 265, 7 August 1942, Page 4

MORE LABOURERS FOR QUAKE REPAIRS

Wellington Arrangements TO HELP WITH CHIMNEY RESTORATION It was announced by the Wellington city engineer yesterday afternoon that, thanks to the Commissioner of Defence Construction, Mr. J. Fletcher, some 40 labourers were being released from other jobs as from Monday next to assist the bricklayers now engaged upon the restoration of Wellington’s fallen chimneys. It is estimated that the present small army of bricklayers may be engaged in this work for the rest of the month. The city engineer wishes it made quite clear that, while owners of buildings considered to be in a dangerous condition through earthquake stress are being urged to institute repairs as soon as possible, such repairs are not being undertaken by the corporation (which is only acting in connexion with chimneys). However, all plans of such work must first of all be submitted to and approved by the city engineer’s department. Some work was done in the main Town Hall yesterday preparatory to a closer inspection of the building. Some men were employed in scaling off the cement above and below the cracks in the" piers which range along each side of the hall. This clearing work will enable the experts to 'determine whether or not the piers have been fractured right through, or whether the jar has only been sufficient to crack the cement.

A contract has been let by the city council for the repair of the old education board 'building in Mercer Street, and a start was made yesterday with the demolition of the parapet and the brickwork along the lines of the fractures in the side walls: Change of Address. Because of the damage sustained by the old Technical School building, in Wakefield Street, a structure which will probably have to be demolished, the Provincial and Metropolitan Patriotic Committee’s offices have been removed to the old education board building, recently vacated by the National Patriotic Council (now housed in “The Dominion” building). One of the latest footpath areas to be roped off as unsafe, is that section of the Kent Terrace footpath outside the three-story shop and apartment brick building known as "Jameson’s Corner,” situated on the corner of Kent Terrace and Elizabeth Street. Here the building appears to .be somewhat severely cracked, though there are no breakaways. Yesterday’s rain, the first since Sunday’s earthquake, revealed many leaks in roofs and the call for plumbers was more insistent yesterday than it has been for some weeks, though this class of tradesman has been one of the most difficult to secure for months past. Another trouble which the public and the plumbers have had to face has been the scarcity of corrugated iron, ■which is only available—outside Government requirements —in small quantities. Some relief has been afforded from time to time by small consignments of leadcovered sheet iron, flat and corrugated, from Australia. There has also anlved a consignment of American galvanized iron called ‘terns” (26 guage). A good many plumbers have been released from the camps to work in the earth-quake-affected areas, but such men are being employed on urgent jobs only, and have not been made available to private plumbing contractors. Damage to Kclburn Church.

The earthquake caused further damage to the structure of St. Michael’s and All Angels’ Church, Kelburn. Not only have previous, cracks opened further, but new cracks are in evidence and other defects have developed. The churchwardens and vestry are now considering the matter with a view to the possibility of replacing all brick walls of the building with wood, and thus saving the roof, foundations and floor, which are undamaged. Slight After-shocks. Four earthquake shocks', stated to be normal after-tremors, have bepn felt in Wellington since the major disturbance early on Sunday (morning. The two latest, so slight as to'be hardly perceptible to most people, occurred at 8.2 p.m. on Wednesday and at 2.59 a.m. yesterday.