EARTHQUAKE DISASTER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1841, 23 August 1906, Page 2

EARTHQUAKE DISASTER.

DESTRUCTION OF VALPARAISO,

PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT Now York, August 21. Advices received at New York state that tho earthquake destroyed Juan For-, nandex, Robinson Crusoe’s Island. London, August 21. The first shock at Santiago lasted four minutes fifty seconds, with a heaving motion. It caused hells to ring in the steeples. Experts state that the city was only saved from complete ruin by the motion being circular. The naval observatory at Valparaiso predicted the earthquake. Its announce-

ment was published in the newspapers the day before. The tiros at Valparaiso have been suppressed. Dynamite was largely used. Many looters wore shot summarily under martial law.

The Governor of Valparaiso estimates a minimum of three hundred killed and eight hundred wounded Private individuals way the killed amount to nearer three thousand. The chief of police estimates that 9 per cent, of the buildings have been destroyed. The Governor considers that Valparaiso

has been totally destroyed, and it will be necessary to demolish all that remains standing. Sir Martin Conway, interviewed, attributed the earthquake to a great earth movement from east to west or west to east, paraded with tho main streets and nearly parallel with the sea. He emphasised the fact that Valparaiso was on tho same line ‘of weakness down the earth’s crust as San Francisco.

ANOTHER HEAVY SHOOK,

WORK OF RELIEF.

GREAT LOSS OF LIFE AT LI M ACHE.

PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGUT Reoffved 9.58 p.m., August 22. London, August 22,

Another heavy earthquake has been experienced at Valparaiso, almost completing the destruction. A slight shock was felt at Lima. Huaobo was also shaken, The Californian Relief Committee has cabled a donation of ten thousand dollars to Chilian sufferers.

Argentina is sending warships laden with provisions, and help is forthcoming from other directions. Government proposes an appropriation of one hundred million dollars for the reconstruction of Valparaiso. Ooe hundred bodies are lying Bt Limache unburned. Two hundred are now mCrred.

Changes have occurred in the depth of Valparaiso bay, and fresh soundings will be necessary, Reoeived 10.11 p m , August 22. A nun together with sixty inmates of a charitable home perished at Limache. Amoeg latest reports is one that Qaillota has been totally destroyed. Tnis was previously reported. The destruction of the chemists' shops at Valparaiso interferes with the suooour of the injured, but there are protisiocs for a month.

The inhabitants are not depressei Many are in high spirits.

SAFETY OF NEW ZEALANDERS,

PRESS ASSOCIATION Wellington, last night. A oable message reoeived in Wellington announoes the safety of Mr and Mrs C. E. White (son-in law and daughter of Mrs (Dootor) Grace, Hawkestone street), who have been residents of Los Andes, sixty miles from Valparaiso, for some time paßt. THE DOOMED CITY.

The following is a description written some time age Valparaiso is a bustling city, with a population of 1413.000. It was originally built on steep hillsides overlooking the harbor : but the modern town follows the winding shorp, the narrow margin having been widened and greatly extended by additional ground reclaimed from the sea. A town with ourviog street and irregular outlines offers a refreshing eontrast to the ebecksr-board squares of the newer Spanish-American eities. Valparaiso is without definite plan or outline. There is a series of wide ravines opening from the orests of the hills, and each has i s network of rambling streets and alleys, and its congeries of low-pitched roofs and wea'hsr beaten houses. From the plaza opposite the Custom-house landing and the railway etation, three or four business streets pursue their devious courses to the right and to the left along the curves of the bay. The modern town is adorned with monuments and statues wherever a plaza or a cluster of trees offers an opportunity for patriotic memorials. The most tasteful, as well as elaborate monument, is that erected in the central plaza in honor of Arturo Prat, commander of the Esmeralda, aud the other heroes of tbe sea fight at Iquique. The Government buildings and ohurohes are not impressive, but there are showy blocks of shops, and there is a brisk movement of traffic in the streets. The chief attraction of Valparaiso is the climate, which is tempered by ocean and oirial currents from the Antarctic. Even in mid-summer the mean temperature is 6i)3eg Fahr. for the month of January, with a maximum of 77deg ; and in mid winter the minimum temperature is 45 degrees, with 52d-g, as the average t r July. While the winters are about as warm as those of corresponding latitudes on the Atlantic ooast, tbe summer heats are from eight to ten degrees lower. In Santiago tbe maximum temperature in

summer is ton degrees higher than that of Valparaiso ; yet the winters are muob more severe in the mountain valley tban on the ooast, the difference in minimum temperature being 15dg, The olimate of Valparaiso is singulaily dry, equable, and invigorating. What is most surprising iB the freshness of vegetation in a town where rain is praotically confined to three months, and averages for the year. Even in the middle of the long dry season tbe trees in the parks do not have a parched appearanoe ; and in Vina del Mar, a delightful suburb on the outer edge of the bay, where the wealthy residents of Santiago and other Chilian towns swarm during the heated period, there are remarkably brilliant dup'ays of flowers, ehrnbs, and trees, the country looking fresh and verdant, as thought there had been showers every week. It is a beautiful rolling oouotry, with O'chards and \ ioeyards and fields of wheat waving in the ocean breeze.