The Daily News. FRIDAY, APRIL 20. THE EARTHQUAKE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8089, 20 April 1906, Page 2

The Daily News. FRIDAY, APRIL 20. THE EARTHQUAKE.

It is utterly beyond the power of pen to picture the awfulnoss of the visitation that overwhelmed tho sleeping City of San Francisco on Wednesday morning. The hearts of the stoutest mortals quail at any time before the awo-inspiring convulsious of the earth's crust; when confronted by a catastrophe so awful and so terrifying, the mind is stricken dumb with horror. In tho midst of so overwhelming a calamity, small wonder the particulars are somewhat conflicting and hysterical. Whether even the worst has been heard, our columns this morning contain sufficient to show that one of the most terrible visitations the Press has ever been called upon to record, has overtaken one of tho greatest American cities. The holocaust that succeeded the earthquake, and now bids fair to leave nought but a smouldering heap of ruins to mark the site of the third icty of the great Republic, stands almost unparalleled in modern times. Not only the business portion of a great manufacturing and shipping community has disappeared, but the flames are rapidly consuming the residential area. It is obviously impossible that anything like even an approximate estimate of the loss of life can be given, and it is not at alj probable that the information that has reached Chicago that thousands have perished, is exaggerated.

San Francisco was one of the finest cities in the United States, the eighth in size, with a population numbering over 200,000, but by reason of its great trade, about the third city iu importance. ,It was fouuded liy a Spanish Franciscan Mission towards the end of the eighteenth century, but its growth was slow, and when gold was first discovered in 1810, the population was only about 2ll(). In (he following year the United States took possession of the ivhole of California. The gold rush of ''l9 brought 50,000 immigrants by land, and 63,000 by sea in one year. Since then the city has grown rapidly, and contains probably the most cosmopolitan population in the world. Everyday there are published iu the city newspapers in French, German, Spanish, Chinese, and Italian. The town is beautifully situated, possesses many notable buildings, and with a general pleasant climate, had become one of the gayest American cities. 'Frisco, probably of all American towns, is the best known to New Zealauders, by reason of our 'Frisco mail service. The catastrophe has therefore a grim fascination for us, especially as the mail steamer, which ivas to have sailed for Auckland today, was moored iu tho smitten harbor, and the head offices of the line, Spreklcs' famous sky-scraper, one of the highest buildings in the tow n, were amongst those demolished. Many New Zealanders are now awaiting, in fearful apprehension, tidings of relatives and friends who wore expected to have sailed by the steamer. Although t'uc Post Office was destroyed, there appears to be a prospect that the .New Zealand mails may have been saved. Compared with the great loss of life, and the immense destruction of property, representing ruination to thousands of survivors, tlie loss of the mails would be but an incident-, We can only hope that when the hysterical excitement has subsided, later particulars may show that present awful reports of loss of human life have been exaggerated, and that the position of the unfortunato people may be found to be less desperate than present details indicate. Meantime, the whole-souled sympathy of Xew Zealauders is extended to the sufferers by the calamity, and to the people of the grief-stricken .Republic.