SUBSIDENCE AT NEWCASTLE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8150, 28 May 1906, Page 3

SUBSIDENCE AT NEWCASTLE.

SHEPHERD'S HILL RENT AND TORN. NUMEROUS RESIDENCES ■ DAMAGED. A subsidence of a somewhat startling character took place on Tuesday week on Shepherd's Hill, which forms one of the moat favoured of the resident sites at Newcastle, New Sooth Wales, and caused great alarm among the residents. Thia part of the city, which enjoys a considerable elevation overlooking the reoreation reserve and the Paoifio Ocean, also oooupies a position adjacent to the underground work ings of the A.A. Company's Sea Pit, the drives of which extend from the pit mouth, near Darby Street, right out under the BED OP THE OCEAN for some considerable distance, and it is surmised that a "creep" has taken.place in some portion of the workings, thus causing a "drag" on the surface, which has been rent and buckled to a groat extent in some places. The area so far affected, says a Newcastle correspondent, includes •about 300 acres extending from the water tank on the summit of the hill down to Ordnance Street, a distance of about a quarter of a mile. Terrace Street, the principal thoroughfare, gives tangible evideuoe of the ground underneath having slid away in a northeasterly direction for some distance, as the asphalt forming the roadway , has been cracked in a zig-zag direction at intervals. The houses in this street number just a tcore, with an easterly aspect, and they are all of a very substantial character, being mostly briok or stone, and every one of them has been

MORE OR LESS DAMAGED, while tbe water and gas mains have been twisted and broken in many places, oaasing serious leakages, < A number of the residents of "The Hill," as the locality is generally known, when interviewed, stated that they felt a distinct trembling of the ground beneath them, and while these tremors lasted they had vivid impressions of the recent earthquake in San Francicao. Some children who were playing in the reserve felt the shock, and several of them ran home quite terrified. The "lookout" man at Fenwick's signal station, on the top of the hill, also had a similar experience, and he TELEPHONED AN ALARM to the firm's office in Scott Street, in the centre of the city. The municipal council's inspector (Mr Thomas Lloyd), wbije engaged at the Council Chambers in Watt Street, felt the ground vibrate slightly, and this fact, bearing in mind the position of the Council Chambers to Shepherd's Hill, indicates clearly the direction the distuibancb travelled. The inmates of most of the houses on the hill had some i ACQUAINTANCE WIJCH THE SHOCK, which appeared to have been most severe about half-way up Terrace Street. At the top end, where Mr Keightley, manager of the New dastle Coal Company, resides, and at the botiom and of the street, where Dr. Eame's private residence is situated, the vibration was not so violent nor prolonged aa about midway, where several other of Newcastle's professional men have their homes. An examination of the houses revealed something of the intensity of the shock. Walls were thrown out of ylumb, and cracks ranging from an eighth of an inch to two inches in width could be traced from floor to ceiling. Cornices were twisted oat of position, and ceilings broken, while doors and windows were either jammed or given too much play. Lawns and back yards were scored with lines of cleavage, an d in places the ground underfoot gave out a DECIDEDLY HOLLOW SOUND that was was not at all reassuring to persons of a nervous temperament. Under circumstances such as these it was only to be expected that numbers of the residents, the women folk especially, preferred not to spend the night at home, but rather to seek accommodation with friends or at hotels in the uity. The roadway of Terrace Street is broken across in several places, the tissues ranging from an inoh to two inches in width, and extending down for at least several feet. These tissues can be traced across the reserve, and into the military fort, where the heavy ordnance is mounted. The masonry here is cracked in places, and it is feared that considerable injury has been done to the gun' mountings. The steep cliffs facing the ocean in the vicinity of the "Bogie Hole" testify to the displacement forces which have been at work, as tbe high escarpment exhibits ugly, gaping crevices that were previoulsy non-exist-ent. Viewed from any point, it seemed that the whole of Shepherd's Hill had lost its foundation, and slipped down one or two inches at least, causing everything on or near the surface to be thrown out of place and proportion. The rupture of the water mains soon drained the highpressure tank, containing several thousand gallons, oh the apex of Shepherd's Hill, and at a late hoar at night it was feared that a heavy drain set in upon the principal reservoir on Obelisk Hill. Tbe enormous rolume of water liberated from the broken mains has not come to the surface, but has found its way uuderground, in what direction has not yet been ascertained. The amount of damage done by the subsidence cannot be estimated yet, but so far it will probably run into a few thousand pounds. Some of the residents are of opinion that the ground has not yet settled, and that further subsidences may take place before the underlying strata comes to rest permanently. The origin of the "slip" is at present a matter of conjecture, but a report is in circulation that a number of miners in the Sea Fit had been obliged to make a detour of the workings in order to get into the bottom of the shaft consequent upon the usual means of exit having been blooked.