A TIDAL WAVE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 172, 20 January 1914, Page 6

A TIDAL WAVE.

N'l-'.W I'l.VMtilTW.s KXI'KRIICNCI-:. In eoiiiicctioii w ith a paragraph appciriu:; in a Wellington paper in respect to the great tidal 'wave of lSli.'l, which originated on the South Aiueriean const and swept acro-s the Paeitic, Mr. .1. Mel high, of Paliinrsloii North, gives an account of what happened when the wave struck New Phnio'.tli.

At that time. December, ISIIB, ilr. MeHugh, who is an old annv inaii, was stationed in New Plvmouth with his detachment, of the lioyal Irish, lie stated the wave i-ann- 111.111 ihe west coast of Peru, where it had wrecked the village of SI. Thomas and swept across liie Paeiiic Ocean. "I was in niv hunk at the stockade." remarked Mr. Mclliigh to a contemporary, "and when it struck, the earth went trembling, and we were nil (os-ed about. A sergeant and hvu men went around the town calling for people to leave for tin- hills, unif thev went to the Marshind Hill stockade, l-'.verv thiiii; v.-a- -mashed in our rooms, and the hollies in chemists and local public houses were all broken to pieces, '('he Phureh of l-higlund, a little place built wilh stones, was cracked in outplace, and the splii can he seen to this day. ( hiiiinev.s were thrown down, and for a week afterwards the earth iremlded coiistnntlv."'

It Wii- then slated that the wave pass,,'d 011 10 the thallium Islands, which (it that, wn- o:iI- inhabited bv Ala iris. The land was covered with' silt, and ■later the (iovernnient sent two brigs to .bring back the .Maoris. They were landed ill New Plymouth. aihT sent to the Pell lllock settlement, six miles out of town, --'l'liese Maoris are now industriously farming." concluded .Mr. Mcllugh. -whereas' it seciiis only a short time ago we were teaching tin-in civilisation.''