BADLY KNOCKED

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 331, 19 September 1932, Page 5

BADLY KNOCKED

WAIROA SUFFERS ROTORUA MAN RELATES 'QUAKE'S TRAiL OF • • DESTRUCTION. PEOPLE DIS1IEARTENKD. "Wairoa is badly knocked," said Mr. A. P. Smith v/bo has just returned from a visit to tbat town to which he rtms a tourlst service for the Rotorua Rus Co from Rotorua, "and the town and its people are in a bad way, much worse than they were tn the first 'quahe." Mr. Smith had an exciting experience when he went through on Friday and found thafc fche state of ihe road was all right until he got to about severn miles from Wairoa where a slip of very large dimensions had come down. It was about three chains long and coinpletely bioched the road. The party in ihe car had to scrambla over as best ihey could, and on the other side managed to find a motor-cycl'st, who cent out another car from Frasertown. Frasertown Bridge Sinks.

At Frasertown there is a big briuge over the Wairoa river which is the only link betvveen Wairoa and tho north, and this has sur.k fuhy six inches, fracturing the watei'-mains, but lepnirs to these are in band. The stale oi" Ihe bridge is not yet aseerlained. Thrust Was Vertical. "In Wairoa itself," said Mr. Smith, "the damage is much worse than would at first l>e apparent fox the force of the Y;uake has been upward with tlu* result that the foumlations of nearly all the shops have been sliattered." Mr. Smith noticed that in nearly evo y shop in the main street of Wairoa Ihe frames from which the g'lass had heen sliattered had outward bulges, showing that the thrust had not been so much lateral as vertical. IIo pointed out that after Ihe February, 1931 'quake, the buildings were more or less )>ut up in a boxlilce type, each standing by itself so as to neutralise any lateral movement, )>ut the present vertical tlirust had cuunplcd tho bxtikling.; upward. An IJnnerving Experience. The slafi' and vi itors in ihe Ferry Iiotel had a particulariy unnarving experience. The hoxel is a wooden st ruet.ure and, as the 'iuake occurred in the eatly bours of tlie morning, all the inhabitants were in bed. The shake jambed every door that was : sliut and the inmates, many of whom had sufl'ered minor euts and brulses through being thrown out of bed, were trapped. Fortunately the fire had heen quenched and ihe plaee. did not eatch alight or n tcrrible tragedy would undoxibtedly have taken plaee. No Light or Water. On Saturday Wairoa was still without the e-sential services of light and water and telephone communication was fragmentary. The inhabitj ants were extremoly dislxeartened at | this second visitation. In many cases | they had sufl'ered very sevorely in ! tho previous shake and this had now j destroyed all that they had been able j to rebuild. Many were talking of j abandoning the town and their interests in it.

Loss of Bridge. "The worst feature of the lot," Mr. Smith, "is tiie loss of the new bridge. Wairoa is largely built up as the result of it being a sort of meeting 1 laee between Napier and Gisborne, and in its early days it was just a township which grew up around a ferry. Then the lu idge was built and that was destroyed by the 1931 •quake. About £15,000 had been spent on the new one, jmd now that is gone. It is very badly uamaged; indeed far more so than at first appears from a easual glance, for I suw it at lowtide, and, though at first oue would think that the piles and piers had only a very bad lean on, yet ihe low tide reveals that every one of thern is ciacked below Ihe tide level. In addition one span has eompletely collapsed. The loss of the bridge will l>e a severn blow for it menns that tra.flie is bound to leave the town to go over the only other bridge which is the rallway structure on the river seven miles away. This did not suli'er any damage either in this 'qxxake or the last. It looks to me as if the sile of the whole town might l>e shifted since the eost of renewing the Wairoa bridge must be onornxous. Freezing Works Damaged. Only last woek a start was made with the erection of tlie Wairoa Freexing Works which were damaged by fire after the last 'quake. Bome of the stone walls were left standing then, but the latest shoclc demolished these eompletely, and it is not yet known whether fxirther restoration will now he proceeded with." People Need Help. "In the. last 'quake," concluded Mr. Smith, "Wairoa sufl'ered very severcly, but was overshadowed by the Napier and Hastings damages, and did not get so much help. If ever a people really need help, Wairoa people need it now, for they have lost twice and they have practically lost heart."