THE EARTHQUAKE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 6 May 1925, Page 4

THE EARTHQUAKE

TERRIFYING SHOCKS AT CLARENCE BRIDGE

SETTLERS STILL LIVING IN TENTS

(Bv Telegraph —Special to The Mail.)

(‘HRISIVitI'KCH. M;iy 5

Although the earthquake experienced in Christchurch oil J hursday last caused anxiety in the city it was nothing compared with the shock which was experienced at the Clarence Bridge. Mr A. J. Murray, who is a resident in that locality, gave his experiences to a Star reporter to-dav. '1 tie first- shock came at. at,out 9.40 on the Thursday night, he said, and we thought the house was coming down. 'tlie thunderous roar which’ the quake was making, together wit'll the noise of breaking crockery and china from inside the house, made a terrifying noise. All the articles in the house which did not rest on a substantial base were broken. A heavy old compass which I go! ironi the Vakatu was twisted completely round and a large number of bottles which Iliad been standing on the Hour before the shock were broken. Alter this first shock mv wife removed everything that she could gel from the walls or cupboards and placed them in a place for safety, for though .1 myself did not believe that we would get a secern! shock site was afraid that there miglA he. The second shock came just- as I was getting into bed again. If the first shock was bad this was far worse. It was the most- terrifying experience that 1 ihave ever had. Tho house shook and trembled like a len’f. and as soon as we could we rushed tmt. into the open. There we built a tire nut on the drive and camped around it all night, fot we would not have gone back into the house for any tilling. There were quite a number of smaller shocks, and indeed we did not feel the last one till late on Saturday night. All through that night in the open we could hear great boulders rolling down the hill sides and the noise of tlie sea was weird. In my opinion tillo earthquake started somewhere out at sea, for the sea had been making a great noise during the day preceding the shocks, and after they were over it- seemed to go quieter. 1 believe the quake ran right up the Clarence Valley and across the island to- the West Coast. On 1 lie following day I was talking to the ferryman at the-. Clarence and he pointed out to me many huge boulders which could not have been moved with a crowbar. They had been loosened from the river bed'and rolled about- like pebbles. On the south side of the river the road for about a quarter of a mile is cracked and deeply fissured, someyof the fissures being six inches wide and in places the surface has sunk to- the depth of a foot. Unless the road is repaired soon I-am afraid of rain and water getting down into the holes and washing the’road completely away. Most of the houses in the district had their chimneys shaken down through the roofs, and’the people are still living in tents as repairs have not been effected. A gentleman from Rotorua who was visiting in the Clarence district last week told me that he had experienced some shakes in the North Island but never one to touch this. It is a night we shall none of us forget. After the shock the residents at the Clarence were unable to secure communication with the city. The postal authorities said alter wards that the overhead wires bad been so wildly shaken by the earth tremors that they had become inextricably tangled up.