THE QUAKE DISASTER

Hokitika Guardian, 5 February 1931, Page 5

THE QUAKE DISASTER

ANOTHER ACCOUNT

OF WIDESPREAD DEVASTATION

WELLINGTON, This Day. Reports arriving from Napier in the early hours of this morning declare Napier as a town, has been wiped off the map. , . • 1 To-day it is a smouldering heap of f.. ruins, a sepulchre ,of the prosperous past, and gaunt remains of a beautiful seaside town. People are still wandering the streets hopelessly, but with ft fortitude born of extreme adversity, j•• •. .. Before them the seaside front, has receded perhaps a hundred feet from the parade, That Itself has risen from eight to ten feat, Behind them the town is a reeking mass of ruins with not one building standing in the centre part, enclosed by Dickens, Emerson, Tennyson and Hastings Streets. . The face of the Bluff has come down across the road at Port Ahuiri, and lm* blocked access to it by land, as well as by sea, at least for.the moment. The whole faces of Hospital Hill and other Freights behind the town have crashed on to buildings below. The streets have been torn up like billiard cloths with a sturdy cue, and telegraph poles have been thrust at a crazy angle over every road, with tangled wires and wreckage hanging from them. ' Accounts of those who were in the town at the time of the upheaval show the movement of the earth was almost vertical and the whole area was forced upward for several feet, with one terrific jerk, to subside with a sickening jolt. After the city had been deafened with the roar of falling 1 ' masonry, there followed a strange silence. Even on the beach the sight was terrifying. The sea washed away from tlie beach, for it is stated that hundreds of feet then rolled hack. At the same time the Bluff roared over the road at its foot, the whole seafront rising eight to ten feet/ The Nurses’ Home and Hospital on

the Hill collapsed’like weather-boarding

in a hurricane. It is feared us many , ns forty have perished at the Technical School at the south end of tlie town. Doctor Moore’s Hospital on the seafront tilted back several feet' and crumpled in at the back. T ’ .< No report has yet been made as to the members who might have died within the building. The back country for miles is covered with cracks in the earth. Some , are too wide for a man to jump. Many buildings which cost thirty thousand and upwards to erect, are now nothing but ruined brick and motnr, The new Post Office opened in 1929. is practically a shell.

NAPIER GAOL COLLAPSES.

PRISONERS BEHAVE SPLENDIDLY

WELLINGTON, February 4. Tiie walls of Napier prison collapsed .and there was nothing to prevent ' the

prisoners escaping. They behaved, however in an exemplary manner. Two / were seriously injured by a fall of V earth in a quarry. Their mates dug them out. They also helped to rescue a woman buried up the street. She had a. broken arm and was taken to the hospital in a state of collapse. The prisoners returned in an orderly manner to the prison, where they slept in the open. Among the few buildings remaining antact in Napier are: Dalgety’s, the A.O.F. building, the Public Trust and the Power Board offices. These are cracked, however. NEW GEYSER. •«' . STARTED BY QUAKE. > GISBORNE, February 4. An umwiual happening was experienced at Mr J. Barnes’s Graham station at Hangaroa, inland from Gisborne. has been always known that oilAfxists in the vicinity, and gas has frequently exuded from the soil. V- After the first shake yesterday a •column of hot, slaty-coloured mud, 20 do 30 feet high, played up into the air, and continued until the second big shake, It Subsided some minutes later, when the geyser ceased. The heat of the blow-out was so intense that a party of men half a mile away could feel it, wind at the time blowing from the direction of ,the ,geyser towaiyds the men. The blow-out was accompanied by a very loud noise.

j Mud from the geyser ran down into -'S the Hangaroa R.iver. So much mud was thrown up that, being almost of a liquid nature, it entirely damned the river.

-—e REPORTS FROM VARIOUS PLACES — o HARROWING ACCOUNTS a ——• OF THE PEOPLES’ SUFFERINGS (liy Teleyraplt —Per Press Association)

at CHURCH service,

W ATP AW a, February 5

DELAY OF NEWS

ARIEL MOVEMENTS. TO STRICKEN AREAS. WELLINGTON, Febuary 5. An aeroplane with a pilot officer Diithie and 0. Wallace of the Wellington Aero Club aboard, which was delayed at Hastings not Dnmievirke, yesterday owing to a leak in the benzine tank, arrived at Rongotai about eight forty-five this morning with eight bundles of telegrams. Flight Lieutenant Burrell, who left ivongotai yesterday afternoon by plane, reached Hastings about 5.30 p.m. and spent the night there, Flight Lieutenant ,Steelman made nnolier trip to the stricken area today, leaving early this morning with mails for Hastings.

t/ne of the most pathetic of many heart rending incidents attending the oathquake, occurred in St. .John's Anglican Cathedral, in which communion service was being conducted by Very Rev. Dean Bvocklehurst. When the shock came there was a fairly large congregation. T lie shock came with terrific suddenness and the whole building, which is of brick, crumbled to the ground and caught several of the congregation. A large girder struck Mrs

Tom Barry senr., pinning her to the Hour. Her son saw her plight and did his best to release her without avail. The efforts of others were also fruitless. Then the building caught fire .and the flames swept closer to Mrs Barry, and hv this time those around her were playing a hose on her and the timber around. It was then seen that rescue was impossible nn.S as .a last resort, a doctor rushed to the agonised woman and gave her a strong injection of morphia, ft is believed others are buried in the ruins of the cathedral, which is regarded as a particularly fine structure. Dean Brocklehurst was very seriously injured and his condition is stated to be critical.

A curious sight, was presented after the upheaval by the war memorial in the cathedral grounds. This is a large cross in stone and in spite of the fact that every other monument in the town is either broken or torn out of place the cross stood erect and unscathed,

The shake threw out tlie whole front of the Masonic Hotel on the Parade and the interior was laid bare and the crowd in tile street saw a woman seated in an armchair near the edge of the third and top storey. She had to bend because the ceiling had caved in. She made as if to jump from the room, Init she was dissuaded from this by shouts. In her obvious terror the woman sat in a precarious placed chair until firemen rescued her with ft ladder.

WELLINGTON, February 4. j.no Telegraph Department has at 3 p.m. had one shaky circuit to Hastings. Only traffic for Hastings and Napier is going by plane, and it is subject to heavy delay. SYDNEY, February 4. The New Zealand Government office at Sydney, continues to be besieged with the anxious relatives of people living in the stricken districts. Mr Schmidt, the New Zealand Government agent, reports that lie has received many generous offers of assistance including a special performance at the St. James Theatre on Feb, 13. The representatives of various foreign countries also visited Mr Schmidt, conveying official expressions of sympathy. The New South Wales State Governor, Sir 'Philip Game, also called at the office and expressed his personal sympathy. Lady Game and her son leave tomorrow in the Aornngi to visit New Zealand. Brief official bulletins are posted at the Government Office window, and are read eagerly by the seekers of news. The North Sydney and other municipal bodies last night passed a resolution of sympathy with the residents of the stricken area.

The New South Wales Assembly today. on Premi°r Lang’s motion, carried an expression of sorrow at the great tragedy.

SOUTH LA NI) SUBSC'R IPTIONS

TNYERCABGILL. February 4

The Mavor opened a public fund for the relief of ■"iirthquake sufferers. The Southland Daily News Coinpanv subscribed £250. The citv council £2OO. Donald MacDonald £IOO. Hon. A. F. Hawke £SO. Invercargll trained nurses £3O.