CRACKING LANDSCAPE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 696, 22 June 1929, Page 16

CRACKING LANDSCAPE

ALARM AT LONELY LIGHTHOUSE Press Association WELLINGTON, Today. One of the most alarming experiences of the earthquake was that undergone by the keeper and his wife and son at an isolated lighthouse at Kahurangi Point, where it was a matter of seconds only between precarious life and sudden death. Owing to lack of communications it was not until Wednesday that word was received that the light had been extinguished, but the keeper, Mr. A. W. Page, arrived in Wellington today to give a full report of the disaster. Kahurangi Point is 25 miles southwest of Cape Farewell. "The big shake was not first to be felt,” said Mr. Page- “There was one just ordinary shake at 12.45 a.m. and another at 7.17, this time more severe, and lasting about three minutes. Then came the big shake which we timed at 12 minutes past 10. My son and I were working in bush at the bottom of the gully about 700 yards in a direct line from the lighthouse. The boy timed the shake to last about eight minutes. We soon realised we were in a dangerous position as the trees were bending right down to the ground and then swinging back again as if in a strong gale. We lost no time in getting out of the bush on to cleared ground above, and here we came upon a weird sight. “Fissures wer«. opening and closing in the grass slopes before our eyes for all the world like the work of a giant lightning sketch artist. “Cracks of anything up to six inches were opening about our feet, and we had the greatest difficulty in standing upright as the ground heaved and trembled. As we arrived on the spur we saw that the sea was discoloured. My son thought that discolouration must have been caused by sand being stirred up, but when we got along a bit further we saw the real cause was that the whole of the hillside had slipped out into the sea. and cikaus and scrub were showing up out of the water, leaning at all angles. The tops of trees which grew to about 20ft. in height were visible out of the water. "I began to feel anxious for my wife as we could not see what had happened to the house from where we were. After a while we could see that the lighthouse tower was still standing, and then we met my wife who had hurried to find how we were as soon as she found herself safe. "The house had been completely demolished and was buried,under about Lift of dabria.”