INDIA'S CATASTROPHE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7795, 11 April 1905, Page 3

INDIA'S CATASTROPHE.

20,000 CASUALTIES. MOUNTAIN SIDE SPLIT. TERRIFIC LANDSLIPS. ENTOMBED AT WORSHIP. (Koeeived Aprill 10, 0.15 a.m.) LONDON, April 10. i The Daily Express states it is oli"'- ' dally estimated that fclie Indian i earthquake casualties are twenty thousand, hall' (being in the Kangara Valley. Fearful sxjnes were witnessed in Dharmsala, where the mountain side split in several places. Terrific landslips of hundreds of tons of reck overwhelmed the houses beneath. European deaths totalled 37, and there arc twenty people missing. Most peoplo were asleep at the momi-nt of the disaster. A group of natives were entombed by the sudden opening of a chasm while kneeling at; a wayside shrine.

SHOCKS AT ROTORUA. - 'ROTOHVA, April 10, F.arlhquak"o tremors were felt at six o'clock last night, but they were lght. At 12.30 two more were experienced, one fairly pronounced, and another at four this morning.

RELATION TO THE INDIAN DISTURBANCE. WELLINGTON. April 10. Mr Hogben has developed the record tape of the seismograph, whic> shows that the first tremors of the main shock reached New Zealand at 12.50 on the 4th inst., and must, therefore, have loft the place oi origin about 6.38 Indian standard railway time. That, remarks Mr Hogben, agrees with the accounts sent by cablegram this morning. The tremors appear to have travelled at a great speed, probably slightly over ten miles an hour. There were three big series of waves, whereas in many of the other great 'earthquakes there was only one large series, which points to the exceptional character of the earthquake. The tremors are shown by the seismograph to have lasted nearly three and a half hours. It is interesting to note that the Indian shocks occurred 55 hours before the first of the shocks reported from Rotorua on the 6th and 7th.