AWESOME SHAKES IN TREMULOUS '55.

Shannon News, 5 July 1929, Page 4

AWESOME SHAKES IN TREMULOUS '55.

SETTLER'S DIARY. PASCINATING RECORD OP EARLY VISITATION. Some four years ago, fhc Go vera meat Scimologist (Dr. 0. E. Adams; was supplied by Mr, L\ Vf,. Buckeridgo of "Te Papatapu" Moerangl, Ivawma, with some pages c;f the personal diary of Mr. F. W. Trolove, a farmer who resided at Kekerangu, Marlborough, during the great earthquakes of 1555, when Wellington and Marlborough, as well as other parts of the middle district of the Dominion, received one of the most severe shakes in the history of New Zealand. As a result of that disturbance, a portion of the northern coastline of the South Island subsided ■some distance and very considerable damage was done. At that period, however, the country was sparsely settled and the effects of the 'quake fell with less severity on the young colony than was the case in last week's visitation. •

At the same time, Mr, Trolove's diary, written with the effects of the upheaval still vivid in his mind, is a piece of graphic prose which conveys a convincing picture of the effect ofthe earthquake upon the early colonists who had thought always of terra firma as the most solid thing about them. Mr. Trolove commences his entries about the earthquakes as follows: — "Tuesday, January 23, 1855. —Wind came from the west, the sky looking very surious at sunset. Jurdon's cows came up from Woodbank. About halfpast nine or 10 p.m., a severe shock ,of earthquake took place, so sudden and severe that in running out of the house we had great difficulty in keeping our balance. Wc. staggered like drunken men.

"The shocks continued lighter and the earth was constantly in motion, cither in little convulsive starts or oscillating like a pendulum, until, I should say, the middle of the night, when the most awful shock the imagination could conceive forced us once more out of the house in the greatest confusion and alarm. It is impossible to describe one's feelings in such a moment, the earth trembling beneath your feet, everything in the house tossed to and . fro, books and bookshelves rafters 'and roof creaking, chimneys falling, Avails rent and split all in a few seconds. For the rest o fthe night I thought it safer to sleep in the woolshed, so we took our mattresses and blankets there and slept as well as we could until morning, being continually rocked with the earth's motion. No Cessation. '' Wednesday; January 24.—A1l day to-day the earth has not ceased shaking for ten minutes. The shocks were lighter towards the afternoon and we heard more of the rumbling before each shock than we did yesterday. '' Thursday, January ■■ 25.—We have had. a fearful night indeed, and have had three heavier shocks than any before. During the whole of the night until daybreak we'have been in, I may almost say, perpetual motion. The shocks were always preceded by a hollow rumbling—something like the last clap of thunder when heard in tlte distance, but I think more unearthly.' 1 positively thought that New Zealand could not staud the racket until the morning. The direction of the shocks seemed, as near as I could judge, to be about S.E. and N.W., or probably a little more to the south. As I lay in the wcokhed I could see the poor old house, which 1 put up with my own hands, tottering with every shock, and now and then part of a chimney or wall wculd drop to the ground. I felt that what I had done in New Zealand was doomed to be undone in one night. So, indeed, was it too true. "The Giound Rose Like the Sea." "Friday 26, (funclay 28 and Monday, January 29.—0 n Thursday night at 11 o'clock we had the heaviest rhock of any. Abcut an hour after there was another very severe shock. Jurdon and Cate catr.e in just after the shock. They saw (he ground rise before them like a se?. and the horses they were riding staggered as though a bullet had ben driven through their brains. Sleeping on Madcap's Flat. On Friday morning at the earliest dawn, I peeped out cf the hut to see if the house was still standing there, or whether the hil! had slipped away any more during the night. What a change it presented! In the grey mourn a few days, nay, a few bourse past, you might have seen one of the neatest station cottages in New Zealand, with a healthy garden before it, full of vegetables. Its destruction is now complete. Its ruin is not to be repaired, and like thousands more, I fear will remain a melancholy memorial of the earthquake of January, 18oa. I rode down to Jurdon's (my shepherd) along the beach, thinking that the house he was living in would not be harmed by thc\shocks. It was the first house I built on the run, and' was made out of toi-toi, with posts three feet in the ground, and a clay chimney. I came up lo the spot, but 'Woodbank' was no more' Jurdon, whom I had taught to write, completed my surprise and consternation by these written words, in pencil put on the top of a pole which was supported in a rent made by one of the earthquakes: 'I have gone to the Big River Point. I do not like the ground at the AVood Bank. I shall come back to-morrow, Trolove.'

Hills Bare of Vegetation. "There were two or three sharp shocks to-day (Friday), which came from the northward. The overhanging hills along the beach are now as bare of vegetation as can be imagined owing to the slips. The sea has been inland many feet above the high-water mark. Indeed, in some places, the sea

occupies which used to be green rushes and grass. Friday night, slept in trie Big River hut. The chimney is down. The- shakes have not been so constant to-night, but sharper than during the day. "Saturday morning.—We have no meat, very little tea, sugar, flour. Wi are living on eels, young sea-gulls, woodhens, potatoes, and iish. This morning took across the river two cows and a filly belonging to the natives at Waipapa. To-day I should think we have had shocks about every two hours, but not severe if you compare, them with those we have had. Slept in the hut. Night is close and cloudy. We had a sharp shock about the middle of the night. t _ "Sunday moaning.—Thick and misty, with a little rain. Little shocks every hour or so. Sunday night we felt a sharp shock or two. How one feels the want of religious consolation in such times! "Monday morning.—Very misty. Beginning to get the hut into living order. Came from Big River to Kekerangu. How very, very desolate everything appears as you pass along! How many sanguine people in England, if they had felt these earthquakes, would say: 'This is the country for England's surplus population!' Shocks as usual. "Monday night.—Slept in hut. Went eeling; no luck! Fine, but cloudy. Reading 'Bleak House.'.. Shocks as usual.

"Tuesday,. January 30.—Wind from N.W. Eode up to the Flags. The hills are very much shaken and split. My boat at the Flags was taken up and rolled some twenty yards away inland by a roll which came from seaward and left ( high and dry on the green sward. Edw ( in (Mr. Trolovc's brother) brought news from Flaxbourne that 10 houses were cither flat on the ground or so shattered that tliey are past repair. The houses built under large hills have suffered the least. Those on the flat arc level with it. Whilst writing this there has been a very sharp, decided shock at 7 o'clock p.m." The diary goes on to record that on the next day, February 1, Mr. Trolove went up to Flaxbourne, where the owner end manager of the station '' seemed quite cut up'' over the effect of the earthquakes. The day following he described in detail tow he loaded his wool on tc the scooner Shepherdess (Captain Jackson), and shipped it away to Levin and Co. Later still, in referring to news from Wellington, the diary says: "Baron Alsdorf is killed. He kept the hotel in Wellington. Several have got their arms * and legs broken. Clifford's house is shaken, with the exception of two rooms. All the'chimneys'and a great number of wooden, houses are shaken to the ground. The sea has been up 20 feet higher than ever before."