GREAT QUAKES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 29, 27 February 1909, Page 3

GREAT QUAKES.

UI'IIIUVAbS THAT JIAVK SHAKES THE WORLD'S FOUNDATIONS.

The terrible doom of Medina, a town famous for other reasons besides being the scene of one of Shakespeare's most beautiful comedies, is another reminder that the peoples of the world are ever at the mcicy, 0 f the earth. -Messina was a lovely city, containing cathedral, university, palaces, museums, factories, and all the other paraphernalia of a modern city One night the; inhabitants went to bed iliappy; within a fe).' hours iles«inu had ceased to exist. Wiped out with a suddenness that appals the Jiimd, the Sicilian town is today merely a name—another addition to the long list , of national calamities. THE 'I'IUSCU SL'AISE. One need not go back to the destruction of Lisbon in 1755 to lind out what an eaiithquake means. Within the last ten years there have been a score, <vv dudin" Messina, involving the loss oi over HO.OIKI lives. I'eiiliaps the one which excited most fears was the destruction of Kan Francisco. It was no use Minting out that the city by »'<r sea was peculiarly liable to these visitations, thousands of persons got the impression that the end of ban J'lanoco was the beginning of tin- end of the world, and at least two new creeds woe founded upon this world calamity. The disaster was most dramatic, occurring in the height of the season, im. loeal theatres were vicing with each other for the patronage of the pcopi„, and one manager had engaged an opera company, including Signer Caruso, a» his ehil attraction. And it is a coincidence thai tin. „"'" <inwr should have been witlnn a comnanitivcly short distance "f Messina &UUurn«im e . At Sun Francisco bhe tenor was getting into bed, «he ■ sudden swaying of the building salt him. He jumped back m lerr , ■ before he and his h. quite realised what had happened, Mil Fi-ancii.-o was in ruins. _ ... , It is, of course, almost.'»M'°'f ™ in ,,,„ine wlnit n great ei.ty looks 1 kc wh^ramltothogromnl; butanea.h. ,m,ke does not stop at Hint. I'iu is »> tin- ami. amid Vre and nigh aiid ,H" Then, tihe inevitable looting.

'' DKSL'OIMNO T.IIK DKAD. , t i- one of the features o ||U , ml , lH v that.. ~o matter Low g « ll„. miMTv of mankind may be, the e ~Uviv'- plf.itv of persons ready «.<> „nl'c cii'iitiil out «' H. liven hi Hie nvenlictli cenilurv it is necessary to boot mi -Hit dcspoilci's of the (lead; .„„, lllis was the lirst order issued to th,. troops hurrying to the relict of the ~x irili-iliitiinls of Messina. N«w aml •/..■lii, 'terrible mistakes will oreur. Thus. ', r 'well-l;nowu eitizen of San Francisco, who had been buried under Hie bodies of victims, succeeded in raising himself In his feet ill the crude, vcmotery of the shiiih He had not been a minute in dJii.i position, when a sentry shot him dead, iiiiiler the impression that he was a looter. , . Til Japan, Mic houses in certain districts, are built of a composition of wood ami paper, so that, when the. expected (Mirtliiiualce does arrive, the people will ■ not bo hurt by the falling buildings. • From earthquakes and tidal waves our I Eastern allies have suffered appalling losses. In 181*1. more than ten thousand (people were killed in an hour by an earthquake, and, live years later, twice t!)»t »umW succumbed to a tidal wave,

J Only a short time ago the law courts . settled the financial question arising I out of the eartihquaki< at Kingston, Jamaica, when eight hundred persons were killed, including-several members of an English party which had chartered one of iSir Alfred Jones's steamers in order to bwouic 'acquainted with the island. A well known English AI.P. was iu ii in nas attending to his cone spoiideuif, when t i._ ,i;°„., tul,( - Kiii-slni, , disaster occurred, it t e -n c T)» ll- ' ti «'y lucky, in ,M he earthquake came in the middle ot Un cu.v; and, although lire suner-b-i-liie inhabitants had a ntn'Tr I Jii connection with this visitation, it !» interesting to recall that .the British " M '«" «""1»™«- were the nlv „ -c.rat.oii, which expressed their wffC . t,Br h 05Ult las > ( '» to enhance evilly Butish reputation for fair nlav —and pay. I"' 1 *

VOLCAXO-CiODS. /lie world ha., a , )001 . mc Itieie must be lew who cannot recall the wiping out of St. Pierre M'vr "uque a calamity which sent 'thfr■ . liousand .men, women, and children to \ prema lire grave. The earth literally opened and swallowed the, up V , ;i period of Jialf an hour the whole e„un ■t».i was converted into a J,,,,,,, ..,.,,. »|u onum. It is not to be wondered t that the superstitions dwellers in e-ul'i qu'ake districts should believe that their go sive in volcanoes, and that, nlits a uitain number of human bein«s are rt r ! f' .'i' 1 ' 1 "' 1 -'' U wiil destroy the whole of the world. D is a great tribute to the couraec of mankind that, no sooner is a town de Jtroyed or a city almost wiped out, ia>teil San lraneisro is- just recovern-. Rom its. 11)00 visitation, out tl,,u.e' o 0 '.'"""utioaol population to record; and iMngstonis well'on iu way to pro Pt-r.lv Iu .South America, eartJ.qiX the th a1 '. 0 . a . b , 1 " 1110 , ,1C<1 for a timc < ""'I then the nigh cneil people come back "<*'<*». »;'t'l towns affected are ustoied to their wonted activity. The year that witnessed the Calionnan capital's destruction, also fought disaster to Valparaiso;, but the latter a though more than two thousand dea hs resulted, was overshadowed bv Ire happenings at San Erancisco. Earthquakes are part of the risks involved an citizenship in South America

TIIE END OF TIKE WORLD, ho far as (Jrcat Britain is concerned, mere have been numerous shocks, but no great loss of Jil'c. .Scotland, Wales, aud England lave been visited in turn; but the only time that 'anything like panic occurred was in April, 1884, when the country, vibrated from east to west and from the Midlands to the South, thousands of persons firmly believed Mat the erid of .the, world had come; and when Ipswich heard that Northampton «-ae being shaken, and both knew that Leicester and the surrounding country was rocky, their fears seemed coniirmed. London did not escape, UaiupsU<ad suffering most. But the deaths thai resulted were due to terror.

Scientists say tliat earthquakes arc caused by the world boiling over, as it were; and, as countries suffer in proportion to their proximity to the equator, no doubt this is the best explanation.— "Answers."