THE EARTHQUAKE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3975, 25 July 1929, Page 2

THE EARTHQUAKE.

INTERESTING INTERVIEW WITH NELSON CITIZEN.

Mr. J. Neale, a well-known business man of Nielson, who visited Foxton last week in connection with the furtherance of shipping between Foxton and the South Island, informed our representative that he was quite glad to get away from the 'South Island for awhile and get a rest.- Earth tremors were still shaking the northern -part of the South Island, he said, and although not- severe, Nelson experienced at least one shake a day. There were Usually two tremors in the twenty-four houfrs and these •had a very had effect on the nervous systems of the people generally after their terrifying experience during the big shake. A business man in Nelson had estimated the damage to the business portion of that town alone at £IB,OOO and Mr. Neale did not think this estimale included The damage done to (he (College. The (Board of Directors of that institution however were now busy on the perfection of an absolutely ea|rthquake-proof building. The Nelson Public Hospital, of which Mr. Neale is chairman, suffered very little from the big shake and apart from damage to the ceilings in one or two places owing to plaster coming away and damage to the hospital chimney thCro was nothing of a serious nature to report there. The hospital had been very well constructed in the first place with huge reinforced concrete strips running right around the building betnveen storeys and Mr. Neale was of opinion that it would take a very severe shake to do any serious damage at that institution. •

Mr, Neale has. for many years been interested in coal mining and informed our representative that miners working in various mines in the northern portion of the South Island had told him long ago of rumblings and other noises which they could hear when working in the bowels of the earth. These, he said, had been going on, to his knowledge, Tor the last- twenty years. It was the general belief among the mlimefrs and others in these localities, however, that the earth’s crust was not shrinking but pushing up in these parts and that the noises heard were caused bv the upward thrust of the eajrth’s surface.