THE EARTHQUAKES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1785, 4 September 1888, Page 2

THE EARTHQUAKES.

Several shocks of earthquake—one of them very severe—were experienced in this district on Friday morning, between ten minutes and a quarter past four. The shocks were accompanied by a rumbling noise, and apparently travelled from east to west. The principal shock lasted from a minute to a minute and a-balf, and occasioned some alarm among those who were awake at the time. No damage of any moment was done in this district. In Timaru, Christchurch, New Plymouth, Masterton, Kaikoura, Blenheim, Nelson, Westport, Greymontb, Dunedin, Invercargill, Wellington, and other places the earthquake was also felt. In Timaru, Christchurch, and Invercargill tons of water were forced out of the large tanks at the gasworks. At Kaikoura chimneys were levelled, and some damage was done to the statuary in the Roman Catholic Church. At Westport the shock is reported as having been fearful. Crockery and glassware were smashed, and brick chimneys in course of erection were so damaged as to necessitate re-erection. The motion came from the sea, or west to east. At Greymouth the shock lasted rather more than a minute, and made houses creak and rock like vessels at sea. A number of chimneys wore wrecked, especially on the terrace. In the lower part of the town also a few chimneys were split. In Webber’s Suburban Hotel about £5 worth of damage was done, through liquor being shaken oft the shelves. A good deal of crockery was broken in some of the stores, but, generally speaking,. the damage is trifling. The Christcurch coach had only gone two miles from the Bealey when a heavy slip was met. This was cleared away, but others were encountered at the Oiira. The whole road had slipped away, leaving barely four feet of passage. It will take a week to clear a passage out of the side of the hill. The passengers, including Mr It. J. Seddou, procured horses at the accommodation house, and went on to Kumara. The earthquake at Hanraer Plains was something terrible, The hot springs overflowed, Mr Atkinson’s residence at Woodhank, on the Plains, was completely ruined ; also great damage was done at Leslie Hills at St. Helena Stations. All I the residents escaped unhuc*> I

Mr W. A. Low, of St. Helen’s Station, has furnished a detailed account of the damage done in the Amuri district. Three ohimneye were completely smashed at hie residence at Woodbank. Mr W. Atkinson’s large new brick house, nearly finished, was completely wrecked. Mr Acton Adams’; Hopeful Station hou*e, was totally wrecked. At Glyn-wyed M> D. Bulherford’a large dwelling house was thrown bodily against the terrace at the back, and then completely smashed. Several new hot springs have appeared in various places—principally in the 'flat below Jollie’s Pass. The Upper Waiau Bridge is uninjured. Altogether Mr Low estimates the damage done at several thousand pounds. Distinct shocks of earthquake were felt at Westport on Saturday at 4 a.tu,, and another at 6.43 p.m,, on Sunday at 6 and 11,20 a.m., and again at 8.15 yesterday morning. Great excitement was occasioned in Melbourne, and also in Adelaide, on Saturday on receipt of information that a serious earthquake had been experienced New Zealand. Rumours got abroad that Wollitr"ton bad been destroyed, end the excitement was then intense, and fra* allayed only when full particulars] were received.

CHRISTCHURCH. The following particulars are extracted from the Christchurch Press Early on Saturday morning Christchurch was visited with a shock of earthquake which, though not so severe as some which have preceded it, notably, one in 18C8, was yet longer in duration. So far as cap be ga'hered from actual exparience of those capable of giving ao opinion, the shook was vary wave like, and the direction was north and south. The main-shock was followed at short intervals by others of less severity. By the record of the seismometer at Wellington, the true direction was from north-east to south-west. It has been said that, speaking generally, no very great damage was done, considering the number of alone and brick buildings erected in Christchurch, and also the many factory chimneys which are situated in various pans of the city. Bat serious damage has been done to one of the principal erections in Christchurch; viz., the Cathedra) spire, of which some 26ft has fallen. The news of this disaster will be heard with deep regret by all, as independently from the loss sustained by the Cathedral Chapter, the destruction of so beautiful as architectural ornament as the Cathedral spire cannot but b* regarded in the light of a national calamity. Other buildings have suffered somewhsit, 'Tnit compared with the destruction of the Cathedral spire, (be damage done is but slight. . Amongst the buildings which have been damaged may be noted the Normal School and the East Christchurch School. The Durham Street Wesleyan Church has also been shaken considerably, so much so that lha trustees very wisely determined to hold Sunday night’s services at the Thpatre Royal. In view of the state of the Cathedral spire, also, the Chapter decided not to hold services on Sunday there, though the special report of the architects states that the other portions of the building are perfectly safe for the holding of the ordinary services. As is perhaps pretty generally known; the tower was presented by the late Mr Robert Heaton Rhodes, and the spire by the family of the late Mr George Rhodes. The ringing of the Cathedral bells during: the prevalence of the first shock caused serious fears to be entertained as tothw safety of the spire, The largest piece of stone falling weighe about 3owt, and the remainder is made up of small pieces. On the southern face of the tower the stone n falling has grazed the stonework in various places. On the northern side the two pinnacles under the galleries hsv* bean damaged somewhat, and on thewestern side of. the tower some falling fragments bav# broken through the slates, bat the interior of the building is not injure! in any way. As-soon as possible after the occurrence Inspector Pender placed some men on duty to keep the. people off the footpath in esse of any stche falling, and later ie the day barriere were placed on the sidewalk. An eye witness, who saw the fall of the spire, desoribss it in the following words:— "The first view I got of it after my attention was directed to it by the ringing of the bells was seeing two or three stones shoot out. Thee the top part of the spire swayed for a second or two, having a peculiarly weird effect in the kind of halflight which prevailed, and ss it seemed to me, when the violence of the shock was over, down topplod the whole of the topmost portion, the cross falling; against the part of the tower which was standing. The falling of the stones and the ringing of the bells made a tremendous noise, and for a few seconds ! could hardly toll what happened,’’ Mr Montfort, architect, is of opinion that the spire can be rebuilt in such a way as to withstand a shook of twice the severity of the one experienced on Saturday morning, and as soon as an estimate of the. cost has been made, subscriptions to provide funds for the restoration will be invited. On the morning of December sth, 1881, a shock of earthquake was felt in Christchurch, which had the effect of bringing down one of the stones from near the. cross that is, exactly the same spot where, the damage caused by the shock of Saturdaymorniug commenced. Durham Street Wesleyan Church is. reported to have sustained very serious in the shape of a wall having been bulged out. The finial on the front of the building has been canted outwards a little and a patch of plaster has fallen from the south-east corner of the ceiling. • The architects have advised that the church should not be used until repairs have been effected.

The Normal School has suffered perhaps more severely than any other building in the town, except the Cathedral. The* four chimneys on the western wing have> been split, and will apparently require rebuilding. The top stones on ; the northern gable have also been displaced, and a distinct crack is visible between the uew addition to the western wing and the old buildings. Some of the spires are also bent a little. On the southern' wing one of the chimneys has been completely shaken down, the stonework in falling doing a good deal of damage to the slatee on the roof and fence-work in Kiimore street. All the chimneys with the exception of one are more or less injured. The ceilings in the class rooms in the southern wing are all more or less injured, the plaster in most of them exhibiting larg» cracks running right across from north I» south. The East Christchurch public school; was much damaged, and cannot be used! until repairs have been effected, -.rtf* 1

The Museum, Canterbury College, and Lunatic Aiylum were uninjured. None of the factory and other high chimneys in the city and suburbs, so far as can be ascertained, have sustained any damage, with the exception of the one already mentioned, and they have, apparently, been well built. Suoh buildings as St. Paul’s Church, the Raman Catholic Church and Convent (Barbadoes street), and the Mount Magdala Asylum, have also withstood the shock without injury. In St. Paul’s Church a few old cracks in the plaster that had been filled in, have re-opaned, but these are nothing to speak ef and are scarcely noticeable. In some of the stores, considerable damage was done, and a few chimneys were levelled.

A rather narrow escape happened at the cottage of-Mr John Young, at Mo a place, off Madras street north. • His cottasre adjoins « parapet wall attached to the house next door. At the time this wall was built Mr Yeung protested against It on the ground that it was not safe. However, the work was allewed by the Works Committee of the City Council. About 2ft of the brickwork' were knocked off the top ef the wall last night by the earthquake, and stove in the roof of and completely wrecked a little room in Mr Youcg’s cottage. Some of the occupants of the house were sleeping just on the other side of the wall of the injured room at the time, so that if the dtbria had fallen out two feet, or perhaps even one feot further, a serious accident, if not loss of life, would most likely have ensued. Professor Hutton has written the following interesting letter j~“ Telegrams show that the earthquake of Saturday morning did not originate, in Banks’ Peninsula, as I at first thought probable, but somewhere to the west, probably in tbe Inangahua County. I Infer this from the times at which the earthquake occurred at different places—first at Greymouth and Westport, then atTimaru, Christchurch, Wellington, and Nelson, and last at Invercargill, Dunedin, and New Plymouth. The shock was felt over e radius of 300 miles from the centre of dietorbance, and it is remarkable that a shook eo widely extended should have done so little damage. This was pro : bably due to the centre of the disturbance lying so deep down io tbe r*artb, so that the sarth wave at the surface was more vortical than usual. Another remarkable circumstance is the extraordinary rapidity with which the earthquake spread over the surface of the earth, travelling at the rate of about a mile in a second, which is from four to five times faster than the observed velocity of transit of earth-waves through tbe ground. This, again, can only be accounted for by supposing that the centre of disturbance was very deeply seated. But if we take the actual velocity of transit of the wave through the earth to have been 1200 ft a second, which is the average of recorded observations, calculation shows that in order to get an apparent surface velocity of fourteen or fifteen miles a second tor from 100 to 300 miles, the centre of disturbance wou ! d have to be several hundreds of miles below lh» surface, which is quite incredible. Of course, ; time observations alone, even if made , with the greatest accuracy, are only capable of giving the roughest approximation to the position of the centre of disturbance ; .but it is evident that there is something wrung, either in recorded observation, or else in our ideas of the interior of the. earth, and it is very desirable that accurate instrumental observations of our earthquake phenomena ehenld be recorded in at least five or six nieces in New Zealand. The seismograph in the Wellington Miisenm seems to be the only one in the colony, and this appears to register life horizontal direction of the wave only,’ which is not sufficient to determine the locus of an earthquake.. Excellent automatic, self-register-ing seismographs can be obtained in England for about £6O each, and an intelligent person could be taught how to use them. But I have written so otten in vain about the importance of studying our .earthquakes that I despair of the Government taking any effectual steps in the matter.”