QUAKE NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 27 June 1929, Page 6

QUAKE NEWS

GREYMOUTH DAMAGE. . The Town Hall at Greymouth is considerably damaged. It has been decided that the tower will have to be pulled down. ■' All of the chimneys will have to be taken down to the roof and much inside jplajsterins; requires renewal, the cost' being 'estimated; at £3OO. The damage to the Grey Star buildjns is . estimated’'to -cost £I2OO to repair. It is estimated that the big ’quake-' hpit. -. Monday Areele, dislodged a bout 100,000 tona-bf .stone at the Cobden quarry, and the value of labour And. explosives. required Tor.' such an undertaking is set down at £OOO, so ’that. to.-this, extent' the'Grev Harbour Hoard will benefit. . LAST NIGHT’S SHOCK. The shock felt at 10.39 o’clock last night was felt at Christchurch, Web lingtoii and Greymouth, causing some alarm in the first-mentioned city. WESTPORT WATER. SUPPLY. NEW PIPES ORDERED. [By Telegraph, Per Press Association..] , WESTPORT,, June 26. The Westport ’ Borough Council held a. special meeting to-night to consider the question of repairs to the water mains. Tho engineer. Mr. ‘Swinburn, reported that the 14-inch main wOidd not be available until new pipes over* a ‘considerable distance wore procured. As the pipes had been drawn apart, they had been crunched by the ’quakes and made quite unfit for further service ■lt iwas ' deeidecU tp: ;wire ; the Warn -grtiiili'' Spiral “Company • .for the • now pipes required, for the earliest delivery possible. BULLED SCHOOLS REPAIRS. 'WESTPORT, June 26. Messrs Thornton (Secretary), and '.Lo.aper (Architect') of Nelson Education Board, have just completed a tour of the. schools in this district, AVid'have tinted for' report to the Department tile work required at' the different schools and residences.

They 'are giving 'instructions for the necessary work to be put in ham without delay. They have also made an arrangement for the temporary accommodation of school classes in Y\ ostporl some in portions of the school, and others in other buildings. Some 'of the classes will assemble on Monday but others 'will not do so for another week.

MB COATES' VIEW. ON RELIEF AND. EECONSTRUCTTON. NELSON. June 2(5. Seen by a “Mail” reporter on his arrival ».by the Arahura. from _W est”port this afternoon, where he lias been inspecting the earthquake damage at ;We.<Cport, Mr J. G : . Coates, Leader 0.l the- Opposition;' said, that the people of Westport appeared to lie very much shaken after their experience. A Belief Committee bad been organised, and matters wore generally getting back to more normal conditions. Asked if ho would like to express an opinion as to tho suggestion that the relief funds should In* collected bv a Central Executive. Mr Coates said lie would not like to off'-r any opinion at this stage, as the details wore' s" meagre. There were so many factors to he taken into consideration and a formula would have to he worked out which would he fair to all parties concoi ned— to. • the- sufferers both m the towns aiid in the country districts affected. However, ihe- did not doubt that a scheme would lie worked out.

Mr Coates expressed the opinipn that now was the time to start the reconstruction work, and get right ahead .with it. Meantime. J|e -advocated “business as usual.” NEWS FROM MURCHISON. WELLINGTON. Juno 26. The Acting-Secretary-General ol the Rost Office advises that the Postmaster at Murchison reported to-day at 8 a.m. that it was sLill raining, and that the rivers were in hall flood. Hie detonations were loss frequent and tremors were not so heavy.

o SHARP SHOCK LAST NIGHT —o — VARIOUS COMMUNITY REPORTS n REPAIRING THE DAMAGE . ■ — REPORTS OF SUFFERERS

The Postmaster at Takaka reported that a very severe shock was experienced' at 9.10 o’clock last night and that tho tremors continue, but at much longer intervals. WESTPORT SHOOKS. WESTPORT, June 26. There was a severe shock felt here at 9.10 p.m.; almost equally as severe as a very hard’oiie at 10.39 p.m. There were also several severe tremors after midnight. ' LATER WESTPORT SHOCKS. WESTPORT, Juno 2G. Some further heavy ’quakes have been experienced' at Westport to-day' but with apparently no additional damage. AT CHRISTCHURCH. CHRISTCHURCH, June 26. From the morning of Monday, June 17, over 60 earthquakes were recorded by tho Christchurch Observatory. Over half of them were recorded on the day of the big shake. Next in order was Sunday with ten ’quakes, l followed by Wednesday, with nine. One shock of fair intensity was recorded at the Observatory at 11.24 o’clock on Monday. GREYMOUTH RELIEF. >At a meeting of the Greymouth Belief Committee 1 * t evening, the application received for relief approximated one hundred and sixty. Eighty of these were from Blackball, while it was reported that there would he no more than one application each from Brunner and Nelson Crock‘-localities, while- there were four or five from ■ Buddy,town locality. The Committee decided that the country applications be referred for an investigation to a Country. Sub—Committee, including the Mayor of Brunner and others to he chosen.

, f ; t was then decided to deal with 74, .applications covering the towns of. Greymouth. Condon and Runanga. In the ease of Runanga. the Mayor Mr MeTaggart, was delegated f-o investigate .and deal with the applioa--.ions.

With, regard to the applications received from tho owners,of houses held under Government, mortgage, it. was resolved that application lie made to the' Government to have the damage in their cases capitalised, and that their payments lie readjusted so as to enable the repair costs to be added to their liability and paid off in t|ie ,~:iine • manner as the mortgage. The Committee decided, in view of ’the local fund being at present limit'd - to less than £6OO. that the iippli•ants. to whom grants should at once ho • made be tlio.se of widows and 'others lacking breadwinners, whose circumstances wore necessitous. With the ’exception of one £7 grant, those allocations were limited to between £3 - TOs and £6. covering in no instance the full cost of repairs'. Where sonic necessitous"applicants had already bad repairs done, grants for these were included.

It was resolved that no applicant who is a tenant should 'be made any allowance, the' repairs in these instances developing on the landlords.

EARTHQUAKE BISKS IN BUILDINGS. PROPER PRECAUTION URGED. AUCKLAND, June 2(5. “To rebuild brick chimneys in Westport in the same old way through the roofs of wooden bungalows, an inherently indifferent type of construction, is directly courting further disaster, and loss of lile. To construct lofty parapets or other structures, which are depending for stability upon their weight, and' which .wlieir shaken or moved but a little from the vertical, must collapse, is tempting Providence.”

Thus Mr S. -I. Crooks, junr. lecturer in, building construction at the Auckland -University College, appeals to local bodies and Government departments to adopt earthquake-resisting const met ion if or buildings to. proven! repetition of wreckage in the South Island disaster. The statement, which is issued by the School of Architecture, declares that, although earthquake resisting type of construction on a large scale is more expensive, experience has shown it is penny wise and pound foolish to ignore the darker in some

areas'. ’ Detailed study of tho offects on buildings in the Californian and Japanese disaters has enabled architects to design- buildings which are virtually earthquake proof. In this connection, Mr Crookes referred to the book “Earthquakes and Building Construction,” published by the Auckland architect’ Mr O. R. Ford. “The large number of ’quakes, more or less severe, to which many parts of New Zealand have been subjected, the ever-increasing height of city buildings with the proportionately greater risk of life in event of collapse and havoc that may he wrought by the failure oi u few large structures, all points to the fact that non-application of f the lessons „f the past is unjustifiable,” states l' Crookes.

Ho suggests that all those investing capital in buildings should stipulate that tlie type of construction incorporate some measure df resistance. In fact, in all areas known to lie subject to ’quakes, the building • regulations should make, reasonable ’quake-proof construction mandatory. There, are many precautions which could lie taken to ensure a ''greater measure of safety with very little increase in expenditure; to ignore precautions was foolhardy. Some of these safety measures could ho incoipointed in the by-laws of local authorities in affected areas* “ For permanent construction, buildings with reinforced concrete or steel frame, for buildings have a short economic’life, a timber frame, all specially designed and erected on suitable foundations should he adopted.” lie continued. “If the lessons of the past were £a.kcn.. to heart, and the architect was given freedom' to apply his knowledge of ’quake-resisting buildings, there would be less cause for fear that many New Zealanders live and work in buildings that might collapse like a pack of cards. There are many ways in which tho most common types of construction arc extremely defective in regard to eaitilquake resistance. But as long as the general mass of the population, and large firms' and institutions and even Government departments, with hundreds of thousands invested in buildings in dangerous areas, fail to take advantage of the architect’s knowledge —fail even to take the simplest precautions—there is always the possibility of a still more serious disaster.”

BUILDING MATERIAL. FOR ’QUAKE ZONES. NELSON, June 26. Mr H. E. Holland, Leader of the Labour Party, arrived in Nelson from Westport to-day, accompanied by Mrs Holland, and Miss A. L. Holland, bis private secretary, and was met by the Hon. W. W. Snodgrass, M.L.C. Mr Holland first of all interviewed Mr Rogers, manager of the Anchor Line, : re the possibility of continuing the passenger and cargo service to Westport. He next called at the ToWn. had an opportunity of viewing the various structures ill the main , etreeV damaged \by the recent earthquake shock. : He.,was taken oter College by (Messrs Glasgow’ and J.-U;'-Littlejohn-. : -Mr Holland this str u ok- -by •th a - fact that- as at )Ves? port, a great deal of the damage'done to certain' buildings was accentuateby the heavy ornamentations , with which 'Hicli edifices were overweighed. Referring to the position at Westport and in the Duller district generally. Mr-Holland said that a remarkable amount Of- cleaning up had been done; and every endeavour was being made to restore at least one fireplace in each home. Quite 96 per cent of tho chimneys in "Westport and the mining towns had fallen. The cliim!ileys that stood were in the main concrete. : One fact established h.v tho earthquake was that brick buildings 'must go, and that wood and reinforced concrete must constitute the building material of the future. I< urthormore. in earthquake areas, one storey buildinos- El ' insisted upon. He was of -o- in ’•> fiat New Zealand would ir "a rap’d re overy from the effects of the disas'“i\ Indeed, the people of ail the I -c-dit"■>« affected were already deni'--/' ! : >' £ their capacity to overcome widespread misfortune.