THE EARTHQUAKES.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 277, 2 December 1901, Page 2

THE EARTHQUAKES.

SHOCKS CONTINUE AT CHEVIOT. [By Telegraph—Press Association.] Christchurch, Saturday. The postmastor at Cheviot reports three slight shocks during last night. They are still having slight shocks of earthquakes at Cheviot.

EXPERIENCES AT MENDIP HILLS* “MORE THAN A HUNDRED SHOCKS.”

Tuk following account of how tho earthquakes have been felt at Mendip Hills was given Mr A. W. Rutherford to a representative of tho Press.

“ Unquestionably tho shock was greater at the stations immediately north of the Waiau River than in the Cheviot settlement. I was over the Hanmer Plains and Glynn Wye country shortly after the ’SS shock, and the ground was not so much shaken up as it is round here. On Saturday morning, the 16th inst., at between ten and twenty minutes to eight o’clock I was engaged in counting out tho pens of newly-shorn sheep. With hardly a moment’s warning, a loud rumble commenced, and the earth rose in waves, seemingly two or three feet high, carrying me along on my legs for fourteen nr fifteen yards. Then ovor I wontagainst a fence. The shearers and shed hands were lying and sitting on the shearing board, some of tho latter ‘ barrowing' sheep, as they term it, for the shearers. I dare say you have seen a bad boy throw a stono at a beehive. Well, that is what it reminded mo of when tho men came out of the portholes. I never saw so many scared men in my lifo, and no wonder. Tho loft had come partly down, letting a quantity of lumber and odds and ends full amongst tho sheep in tho shed. One side had partly fallen out of tho wool storo, and the bales, which had been neatly stacked, were shaken up anyhow. Thu large woolpress had fallen on its side, knocking a hole in the lloor.

“In company with Abe Gilling, an athletic half-caste from Kaikoura, I ran towards tho house as soon as I could keep on my legs. All the women and children bad escaped unharmed, and were outside. Of course, there had boon many narrow escapes. All the chimnoys in tho house were levelled to tne ground, and in their fall had wrecked seven rooms. All tho furnituro fell in heaps, even in the rooms in which the chimneys did no damage. A large quantity of new furniture, rccontly purchased from Strange and Co., was nearly all smashed. A large new addition to the house, only recently furnished and completed, was shifted rather more than two feet off tho concrete foundation. The ’BB earthquake shifted the Woodbank cottage at Hanmer Plains—a lessor building Bin, and that was thought something wonderful. '

There was no more shearing on Saturday, as the men wore too unstrung, and though a number volunteered to clear out the debris from the house nothing would induce my women folk and children to occupy any of the rooms. I may here say that the shakes were going on almost cot,-’ tmuously ail Saturday and Sunday, and that a specially severe shock took place on Saturday evening, doing some further damage. “ The outbuildings were also knocked about, and the stables badly shaken, though no damage worth mentioning took place there. Some five or six horses were in one of the stables when the big shock took place. They were terrified, and some of them fell down, when two shepherds rushed m at the risk of their lives and cut the horses adrift. It was some days before these horse? could again be induced to enter the stable.

At my other station, Brookdalo, the chimneys are aown, and the baker’s oven is completely destroyed. The wool shed escaped damage, although built on high pd< “\ and tn f? were 150 bales of wool on thr. m ° 1 ? ft l, and * ort 3’ or fifty more „ ntt ground floor. The five-roomed cottage will require rebuilding. There are about 100 miles of seventies' a ln S ‘rfh ard fences 0n thcso w T o£ them are damaged more or “ ini” -l Qany ‘ strains ’ wires have othpr P ='i Wl l 0“ an ' y a PP aron t reason. In the t 5 n h6 i e ar ° a F cat nla °y fissures in , the snrie nd ’ p C T ed by tfae ‘ buckling’ of' the surface of the earth. In many places pkvin' k h haV ® X i hd down the caule ? ’ Vlt l the fenoos - Sheep and be h-?nW a t g °u IDg raixed a P- and I shall thV h T , kfU ! When 1 dnish shearing, so fences men on to r epair the to sav tb T U u ed ‘‘° mention that, strange damage hE dlFbero (Mendip Hills) escaped oiZf^£L tm «*»

Rivers ere Vay ’I Leader ’ and Stanton in- the w!f da “ Wedup by hu seslips, baeko *° a Sreat depth! 41! full of ere c Cg ™ UQ d most places is have re~; Jt 18 dan £ er ous to ride. I and » u, rtj years at Mendip Hills, sffiuular’vf < ert ° foand the locality singular, y free from earthquakes. we al*l 1 * 1 darin S the last week an, T be a hundreci shocks as bad as bSfcVr - Previously f elt. The shaken nn - i d .u nV ° r flats are direction-?’ w sbow ’ S re at cracks in ali forced un to H ater e aDd sih has b <*n on the riverflaTs SU A f t Ce i ln many plaCe:s I estimate L i At a low computation, -t estimate my damage at