THE EARTHQUAKE IN CHILI.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8218, 23 August 1906, Page 5

THE EARTHQUAKE IN CHILI.

THE DISTURBANCE PREDICTED.

MAN? FOOTERS SHOT

THE EXTENT OP THE DAMAGE,

deceived August 22, 8.32 a.m. LONDON, August 21. Tho latest information regarding tb'e earthquke it) Chili stales that the first shock at Santiago lasted four minutes and fifty seconds. A heaving motiou caused the bells to ring in the steeples. Experts state that the city was only saved from complete ruin by the motion bsijg circular. The Naval Observatory at Valparaiso predicted the earthquake, and the announcement was published the day before the disturbance occurred. The fires in Valparaiso have beeu suppressed, dynamite being largely used to check the flames. Many looteis were shot summarily under martial law. The,, Governor of Valparaiso estimates, at a minimum, that three hundred people were killed, and eight hundred wounded, Private individuals say that the number Killed is nearer three thousand. The chief of the police estimates that 90 per cent, of the buildings were destroyed. The Governor considers that Valparaiso has been totally destroyed, and that it will be necessary to demolish all that',remains. Sir Martin Conway, in the course of an interview, attributed the earthquake to a great earth movement from east to west or west to east, parallel with the main streets of the Chilian cities, and nearly parallel with the sea. He emphasised the factj that Valparaiso la on the same line of weakness down the earth's crust as San Franoisoo.

"ROBINSON CRUSOE'S"

ISLAND.

1 REPORTED TO BE DESTROYED,

Received August 22, 8.45 a.m. NEW YORK, August 21. Advices reoeived at New York state that the earthquake destroyed Juan Fernandez ("Robinson Crusoe's Isr land.") (Juan Fernandez is described as a rocky island in the Pacific Ocean, 420 miles west of Valparaiso. It Is 13 miles long and four broad, and is for the most part a series of rocky peaks of volcanic origin. The island was discovered by the Spaniard whose name it bears in 1563, and was frequently visited by buccaneers down to its occupancy by the Spaniards in 1750. Here Alexander Selkirk lived in solitude from 1704 to 1709. His story is supposed to have suggested the Robinson Crusoe, of Defoe. Alexander Selkirk was relieved from what appears to have been a by no means unbearable exile in 1709 by the ship Duke, Captain Wood Rogers, and in 1868 the officers o£ H.M.S. Topaze erected .a tablet at a point on the hill road called "Selkirk's Lookout." It bears the following inscription:—"lnj memory of Alexander Selkirk, mariner, a native of Largo, iu the County of Fife, Scotland,- who was on this island in complete solitude for four years and four months. He was landed from the CiDque Porte gdlley, 96 tons, 16 guns, 1704, A.D., and was taken off in the Duke, privateer, February 12th, 1709. He died lieutenant of the Weymouth, 1723, A.D., aged 47 years. This tablet ie erected near Selkirk's Lookout by Commodore Powell and offlcera of H.M.S. Topaze, 1868, A.D.") j

ANOTHER SHOOK AT VALPARAISO.

DESTRUCTION OF THE TOWN ALMOST COMPLETED.

RELIEF FOR THE SUFFERERS.

Received August 22, 9.58 p.m. LONDON, August 22. Another heavy earthquake has been experienced at Valparaiso, almost completing the destruction of the town. A slight shock was felt at Lima, the capitfl of Peru. Huacho, a town north of Lima, was also shaken. The Californian Relief Committee has cabled a donation of tfln|tbousand dollars to the Chilian sufferers. Argentina is sending warships laden with provisions. Help is forthcoming from other directions. The Government proposes tc make an appropriation amounting to a hundred million dollars for the reconstruction of Valparaiso. A hundred dead bodies are lying at Limache unburind. Two hundred have now been interred. Changes have occurred in the depth of the Valparaiso Bay. Fresh soundings aie necessary.

A TOWN TOTALLY DESTROYED

Received August 22, 10.11 p.m. LONDON, August 22. A nun, together with sixty inmates of a Charitable Home, perished at Limache. It is reported that the town of Quillota has been totally destroyed. The destruction of chemists'shops at Valparaiso interferes with the succour of the injured. There are provisions enough to last a month. The inhabitants are not depressed. Many are in high spirits.

CABLE NEWS. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.