THE RECENT EARTHQUAKE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 190, 10 February 1914, Page 8

THE RECENT EARTHQUAKE.

Klil'OllTS KKOM WKLLIKtJTOX. TOWX 11 ALL DAMAGED. By Telegraph- l'ress Association. Wellington, Last Night. Sunday's earthquake seems to have been felt most severely on the eastern side of the city, many articles in private liotpc.* being shaken down, though no ser/us damage oeeurred. Clocks .stopped very generally,, and the old destructor chir.uicv swayed consideralilv. In the Hull Valley' the shake, was very pronounced, the ground moving ill waves, according to some accounts. Mr Ceo. llogbcn, Inspector-Oncral ol Schools, who lias made it special study of seismology, informed a reporter thill a premonitory tremor came at ll.Sil a.m., and lasled three seconds. Then came the sharp main shosk, which lasted eight seconds, followed by vibrations and oscillations which extended over some 21) seconds, so that the whole earthquake may lie said to have covered a period of fully half-a-minute. There were additional slight shocks last evening and (luring the night, but nothing to be compared with the main visitation. The building which appears to have been most severely damaged w.u the Town Hall. The municipal organ was ljadly shaken, and was not lit for playing upon this morning, but the eitv organist fays there is no structural injury to the organ. The ceilings of tin Mayor's room and several other rooms, ami also of the main corridor on the first floor, all showed numerous cracks gaping through the plaster. The city library in Mercer Street, whi'cb in the 1904 earthquake suffered as severely as any building in Wellington, came out d yesterday's ordeal, so to sneak, without a scratch. The strengthening of the walls and foundations after the last shake stood the test splendidly.