WELLINGTON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 237, 7 February 1855, Page 4

WELLINGTON.

On Tuesday night the town of Wellington suffered from the calamitous visitation of an earthquake, as severe and as destructive in its effects as those which previously occurred in the year 1848. During the day there had been a strong wind from the North West, with heavy showers about one o'clock. Towards evening the wind fell, and it again commenced raining ; the rain ceased about seven o'clock, and the weather was still and calm. The iirst shock, which was very severe, and of about two minutes duration, occurred about ten minutes past nine o'clock, p.m.; and was followed at intervals of a few minutes with sharp shocks, the earth during the greater pan of the night having a tremulous motion. The shocks appeared to come from the North West. The injury which has been caused to the buildings in the town was caused by the first shock,—^the others not being of a "destructive character,-—but this has been very considerable, chiefly among buildings of a substantial class, constructed of brick ; of these the Bank has suffered most, the Gaol has also received damage: the wooden buildings Inve mostly escaped without injury. In the country districts in the^ neighbourhood of Wellington, the earthquake" was very severely felt; in the Hutt district from the rising o f * t he water and the action of the earthquake together, the bridge over the rirer Hutt has been thrown down so as to interrupt the communication between the two banks of the river. This visitation has been as sudden and as unexpected as it has been disastrous. It is, however, consoling to reflect that under the mercy of Divine Providence,'.with one exception it has been unattended with \the loss of human life, as might have been the'case if it had occurred during the busy part of. the day, or at a later hour when the inhabitants hadNetired to vest, ihe exception to which we fefens that of Karon Alzdorf, who had some nWt/is"previously suffered from an apoplectic sfvokej from the ettects of which he was slowly recovering. He was struck in the body by poi-tions^of-the.'bvick-work of the fireplace of the room in whjch he was silting, and diod immediately. ,: He was one »1 the earliest colonists, and »vas very generally and deservedly held in high regard by'liis fel-low-settlers for his many estimable qualities, ) During last night OVednesijfiy) sev,er«l severe

BrT^e felt, but none we believe to occaKnnny injury- .... ■ i this particular juncture it appears very B-blcto give a word of caution respecting ■ '' The "•vcater'parl of the fireplaces in the ■j having been more or less damaged by the BLuake^unless very great care is taken, it is Kible, in' the shifts which must necessarily.be ■ lcin'inuny cases of lighting fires for domes- ■ nurposes, that accidents from fire may hapwhich may lead to disastrous consequences. ! would therefore generally suggest the ne- '• ltY of the greatest care being exercised in tow" in tms wspect, and that fires should be kept alight any longer than may be abule ly necessary. (From the Spectator, Jan. 27.) Since our last publication accounts have been 'eived from Wairarapa, and other districts, ere it would appear the earthquake has been tvs strongly as at Wellington. One house Wairavapa was thrown down, and fonr Maos. who were within, were unfortunately killed I the ruins. The road from Wellington to the utt, and up the valley, has been a good deal : hired, as has also the coast road near Wainui, • a heavy land slip. Several smart shocks ( ye since occurred at intervals during Thursiy and yesterday, but not so severe as to occaj'n further damage. In reference to our former count we may take this opportunity of cording one or two inaccuracies. The first ock, which proved so destructive, we are assu(l by a careful observer, occurred at 17# minutes past 3 o'clock, p.m., and its^duration was 0 seconds. We cannot help noticing, in terms of strong ■probation, the short paragraph in Wednesday's ndependent referring to this visitation, the ilsehood and flippancy of which has excited cry general disgust. Possibly the writer of it, loiight by this manner of treating the subject. 9 do away with any unfavourable impression lat of the colony which such news was likely to iroduce: if so, like most cunning and shallow lersons, he has overshot his mark, and will we hink, create a very opposite feeling, an utter mnt of confidence in anything the Independent nay say, and a disposition to believe any exagerated accounts from private sources which ear or despondency may dictate. In this, as n every case, honesty is the best policy :—for •nrselves, we may add, that we have stated the ilain truth, without concealment and without asajjjieration. Considerable loss has been susaiiied by the community, and it has been lome with manly fortitude and in a cheerful spirit: of submission to the Will of God, " whose Providence ordereth all things both in Heaven md Earth." Already, in many parts of the town preparations are being made to repair the damage that has been done, and the effect of the earthquake will be to call forth to increased activity ihe energies of the settlers, and a steady determination on their part to overcome their present difficulties. NEW PLYMOUTH. Earthquake.—On Tuesday night the neighbourhood of New Plymouth experienced a sharp shock of earthquake, which for a time created considerable alarm, but which fortunately was not attended with any consequences more serious than the damaging of a few chimneys. The principal shock took place about 9 o'clock, and continued with considerable severity for nearly five minutes; several other shocks were felt through the night and following day, but of no great severity, and we trust that there is now nothing more to fear from this distressing visitation.— TaranakiHerald, Jan. 24. NELSON. IvvaT£iQUA.KE.-r-Last evening, about 9 o'clock, We of the most severe shocks of earthquake ever experienced in Nelson took place. Several chimneys were damaged or thrown down, and S(|nie propeity, we hear, has been destroyed in Mores, and in private houses. We have not heard of any accidents of a more serious character.—iVrfson Examiner, Jan. 24. Since Tuesday evening last, when the whole ((' the Blind Bay district was startled with the s/«'<>ck of an earthquake fully as severe as dint experienced by us in October, 1848, the earth has continued in a more or less tremulous stote, hut no further shocks of any great seventy have occurred. The first shock took place aj'ont a quarter past nine in the evening, and appeared to come in a N.E. direction, and is Sieved to have lasted from three to four miuutes, but not with the same uninterrupted vio-

lence, for it rose and fell several timcH, and instead of being one shock was probably'a succession of shocks, but so closely following one another as not to be distinguishable. Although from this shock a few brick buildings have sustained great damage, they are those which were injured in the earthquakes in 1848, and ought to have been repaired after that event; instead of which, by being allowed to remain as then left, they are now so far damaged as to require in part taking down. This applies to the premises in Trafalgar Street, occupied by Mr. Nicholson as a warehouse ; the premises* in the same street lately occupied by Mr. Foy ; Mr. A. Aitken's residence in Bridge Street; a small building adjoining Mr. Hargreaves, butcher, and the Wesleyan Chapel.- The three firstnamed are two-storey buildings. Beyond the ! demolition of several chimneys, we are not aware that any other buildings have suffered, except the pise house, the residence of the Rev. IT. F. Butt; all the remaining brick and cob houses in the town and neighbourhood being uninjured, while the wooden and lath-and-plas-ter buildings are not of a character to be affected by such an occurrence. In three or four stores property to the amount of from £20 to £50 was destroyed by breakages, but in private houses little if any loss of this kind was sustained. It is satisfactory to be able to state, I that no personal accident occurred of a serious character, and the only instance in which an injury was sustained was by a little boy, son of A. M'Donald, Esq., Manager of the Union Bank of Australia, who, while lying in his cot, was slightly struck by some falling brickwork. — Ibid, Jan. 27. Since our last publication intelligence has been received from the . Wairau, and we find that the shock of the 23rd was felt very severely at the lower end of the valley, where several buildings were more or less damaged, but ascending the valley, the shocks became less severe as the distance from the sea increased. From the mouth of the Wairau river (which it will be observed is directly opposite to the heads of Wellington harbour) we have received no accounts, but we hope to find that no very serious damage has been sustained there, although we hear that cracks in the ground had taken place in the neighbourhood of the wood, and that sand or mud had been thrown up there in places.— lbid, Jan. 31. Earthquake at Wellington.—We have received the painful intelligence that the city of Wellington and its neighbourhood has again been visited by a most severe earthquake; and we find that the shocks which have been experienced in Nelson during the present week, like the shocks of October, 1848, have been but ihe half-spent wave which first rose somewhere on the shores of the southern extremity of Cook's Straits, but the exact locality of which we have yet to learn. To the arrival last night of H.iM. sloop Pandora, we owe the receipt of this intelligence ; and Captain Drury, with a kindness we can scarcely acknowledge, has placed at our disposal a copy of his journal, which narrates the whole calamity as it passed under his eye. To this document, which we publish in its entire form, we may safely refer for the history of the most dire calamity which has ever befallen New Zealand since it has been a British colony : but while on the one hand we may turn to it to learn the full extent of the disaster, as far as known when the Pandora left Wellington early on Thursday morning, it will also be most valuable for the purpose of showing the real extent of the mischief done, and thus prevent our readers from being misled by stories already in circulation, which magnify the calamity great as it has been :— Extract from Commander Drury s Remark Book. Cook's Straits, Jan. 25, 1556. The anniversary of the Wellington settlement was most auspiciously celebrated—a brighter or a calmer day neverbeamed on the harbour. The boat races, and every description of sports on shore, went off with much good humour and ticlat, and the only drawback was want of wind for the sailing boats. In the evening, a light N.W. wind sprung up which increased gradually during the night; and at 8, on the morning of the 23rd, it blew violently. The sports, however, continued, and the race-course drew nearly the whole population of. Wellington ; but a drenching rain at noon checked the further progress of joviality, which was to be repeated on the morrow.

At 11 minutes past 9 o'clock, p.m., the gale still blowing strong, we felt suddenly an uncommon and disagreeable grinding, as if the ship was grating over a rough bottom. It continued with severity for moTe than a minute ; the ship slewed broadside to the wind ; we were then in 6 fathoms, so there was little doubt but it was an earthquake. Lights were seen running to and fro in all pans of the town, and evidences of consternation'combined with a loud crafth. Lieutenant Jones and myself immediately landed. We found the tide alternately ebbing and flowing. The first scene before us on landing was the Government offices, entirely destroyed, the I upper story, (the falling of which had caused the crash we heard) lying on the ground ; the stair-case, the Council Chamber, the papers and documents in heterogeneous confusion ; an adjoining chemist's shop, whose simples and compounds admixing, had a decided bias to peppermint ; while the doorway of the public-house was a confusion of broken bottles. The sentinel in charge of the Government buildings, who had* just been thrown backwards and forwards, was now walking in front of the wreck with perfect sang froid, no doubt crying " All's' 1 well to the hour. It is not my intention to narrate more than the general feffects and disasters of this severe shock ; and .firstly we have to be thankful to God, that amidst the general wreck of property, but one life has been sacrificed, and not more than four others seriously wounded, up to the time of ,onr departure. This would appear astonishing to a person viewing the wreck of the houses, the mass of brickwork from the falling of the chimneys, the dislodgment of furniture, the fissures in the earth, the extraordinary rise of tide, the entire destruction of some tenements^ the collapse of others, the- universal sacrifice of. property, (and the natural terror and despair among the inhabitants, all tending to far greater personal disaster than fortunately I have to narrate. And here I would especially dwell upon the benefit of the warning of 1848 to the inhabitants, which, under Providence, by causing them to occupy wooden houses, has been the salvation of many lives ; and the hour too was favourable to the escape of adults, who seized the children from beneath, the tottering chimneys, themselves not having generally retired to bed. Few, if any, since 1848, have been rash enough to build a brick house ; the chimneys had generally been secured as well as possible by iron braces, &c. The most substantial two-storied house—Baron AlsdorfFs hotel—of lath and plaster, buried its owner in the partial ruins. Government House, had it been occupied, must have destroyed its inmates, for every room was a pile of brick-work, the chandeliers, &c, utterly destroyed. The guard had a wonderful escape from the guard room, and the gun at the flagstaff turned over. I have already mentioned the entire destruction of the Council Chamber, the upper s:ovey being completely severed from the lower; the treasury strong- box, and the papers and documents apparently in the most irretrievable confusion. The elegant and substantial new building, the Union Bank, is, in its front, a. perfect ruin, and I hear the damage within is not much less. Opposite this building, on the road, a considerable opening emitted slimy mud, and the main street was overflown by inundation. The most substantially built wooden houses of one story, with the exception of the chimneys, are mainly siandin"1. Those of less substantial calibre, (and I am "sorry to say there are many) are in a state of collapse. There is an universal destruction of crockery, bottles, &c, and a pitiful loss of ornaments, "clocks, <S:c. Several stores are unapproachable, until neighbouring dangers are removed. The principal shock occurred at 9h. 1 linin., p.m., and it was by far the most severe. During the night scarcely half an hour elapsed without a lesser shock, more or less violent, accompanied by a deep hollow sound; but ah these subsequent ones were of much shorter duration ; and the first having levelled every portion of brickwork in the lower part, of the town, there was less to fear, but the inhabitants generally _ removed to the open ground, and the following day the streets and gardens were the scene ot an involuntary pic-nic. From what we noticed, it appeared the ele-

mental wave proceeded from about W.N.W. to ; ESE that its actual effect upon terra firma , was slight, and that the fissures were generally where The road was made, although the mud emitted from the crack at Te Aro must be con- j sidered as subterraneous deposit, from what depth not easily decided. From close observations on the barometer, I have no reason to believe that the effect before or after the principal shock was evident (it ranged from 2990 to 30-00), nor that the calm preceding or the sale attending the earthquake had any connexion with the sublerraneau convulsions. We witnessed, during the 48 hours following, every variety of wind and weather, yet witlTrepeated shocks; but although I would disconnect the atmospheric influence with the earthquakes, we had every reason to believe the latter had immediate local influence on the atmosphere, producing violent gusts after the shocks. If it is a fact that an action, or firing, will produce a local calm by the disturbance of the atmosphere, the phenomenon here may be more easily accounted for. But a more interesting and extraordinary phenomenon occurred (I say extraordinary, because no person appears to have observed it in the earthquake of 1848): for eight hours subsequent to the first and great shock, the tide approached and receded from the shore every 20 minutes, rising from 8 to 10 feet, and receding 4 feet lower than at spring tides. One ship. I* heard, was aground at her anchorage four times. The ordinary tide seemed quite at a discount, for the following day (24th) it scarcely rose at all. The general effects of the earthquake were evidently felt more upon the lower parts of the town; at the Hutt most severely. The bridge there was destroyed, and the houses much damaged. lam also informed the Porirna road is sunk in places. Recurring to our landing after the first shock, Lieutenant Jones and myself went into several, houses. The panic was certainly great, and many accepted the offer to go on board—the houses we were in swinging to and fro, and the ground in a constant tremulous motion. It was sufficient to unnerve the stoutest heaits; but after a delay of three or four hours (in which we were visiting other parts of the town), on returning to the parties who had accepted an asylum on board, we found one and all had determined to abide on shore —indeed they were getting accustomed to'it. The wives would not desert the husbands, and the husbands would not desert the town.' We returned to the ship at 2 a.m., the tide at that time having receded about 4 feet lower than at ordinary'spring tides. On'"the f24th the shock continued; but at greater intervals as the day advanced ; but the tremulous motion was continuous. The scene on the streets was novel ; some people standing at their thresholds, groups upon mats, clear of the houses, or in tents in their gardens. Those who had suffered less than their neighbours were assiduous in rendering assistance. What a different scene would have occurred in the father land ! With shops exposed, and every temptation to plunder, there seemed to be neither fear nor thought of robbery, but a.generous and manly feeling to lessen each other's burdens pervaded all classes, from the Superintendent to the lowest mechanic, from the Colonel to every soldier of the 65th regiment; nor can I forget to mention the ready asylum afforded by the merchant vessels in the harbour to the houseless and more nervous inhabitants. On the 25th at Oh. 55 mm., a.m., there was a very sharp but comparatively short shock. Having ascertained we could be of no farther assistance, we weighed for Nelson, and in crossing Cook's Straits we felt one shock in 26 fathoms, at noon, off Sinclair's Head (exactly the saire fpel ing as when at anchor), and a slighter •shock in 80 fathoms, off Queen Charlotte's Sound. In til,--- <3"jnls ih-i-B is jnuch to l>e lliiinkful for in il,. HUenceoffire; had it heen winter, the w.iw ,-,.] f.ulinir i), o f chimneys w.mld luive iis^iie,,", infcfl the uoorien houses: had the fiivt -:y -n-'ni an hour late-!, inauv lives would !>IO>J U '..% .', |,U „ ]„,,. ; lS ,}.,; JJOp,,!.,^. W()U ],| !! iilL ■■' ' " '•"'■|- -\iiifh l-.'.ir is t'iittM-'.:iiiied J"r l.: ' " i< ut Vv Taiijrai,ui i.ai racks. I mist we 5".,, i ihjit NV'.-oti J,:i> suffered :is lightly asc:. ;. j- ,-. c .i-"'«.n-. —7ii\-/., .ia«. ay n *