A WARNING TO CHRISTCHURCH.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2550, 24 May 1881, Page 2

A WARNING TO CHRISTCHURCH.

Writing on the destructive earthquake at Ischia, the Auckland “ Evening Star,” after quoting scientific authorities, says : —That there were severe shocks of earthquake is unquestionable, but unless the ground had, so to speak, been prepared for it, the disaster would probably have not been so great. The fact is that the island is burrowed in many parts. Wherever there is any chance of finding a spring the ground is hollowed out, and the fortunate proprietor makes a good thing of it during the season. The ascribed cause of the Casamicciola disaster has, however, a more direct application to the hitherto solid city of Christchurch than to the quaky capital of Cook’s Straits. Scientific men have never yet agreed upon the origin of earthquakes. Some are plainly enough attendant upon volcanic action ; but in other cases no such cause can be discovered, and the theories of the cooling of the earth’s crust, and the operation of meteorological and electrical conditions, or chemical changes in the strata, have each had their advocates. A scientist of some eminence has, however, pronounced with confidence upon the cause of the earthquake at Casamicciola, and his theory being backed by local observations and experience, it appears to have been generally accepted. The shock was at first attributed to certain disturbances observed a few days before at Mount Vesuvius, but Professor Palmieri demolishes that theory. If the earthquake had been connected with Vesuvius some trace of it would have been discoverable at the mountain itself ; but a very efficient system of observations is maintained here, and Professor Palmieri says “ The lamentable accident which has happened at Casamiccioli did not extend even to the whole of the Island. It must be regarded, therefore, as a perfectly local phenomenon, produced probably by the sinking of the soil occasioned by the slow and continual subterraneous action of the mineral waters,