APPALLING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3081, 31 December 1908, Page 5

APPALLING.

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EARTHQUAKE IN SOUTHERN ITALY. MESSINA PRACTICALLY DESTROYED. BUILDINGS COLLAPSE. ESTIMATED LOSS OF 60,000 LIVES. Received December 30, 10.50 a.m. ROME, December 29. It is officially reported that Messina is practkaily destroyed. The Town Hall, churches and other buildings collapsed. The Trinacria Hotel, at Messina, with the atafi and ninety visitors, was destroyed. The place fell like a pack of cards.

The thousands of dead include the general in conv.nand of the garrison and the Archbishop.

Roman newspapers stale that the number of deaths by the earthquake is sixty thousand. Singor Caruso, the singer, has sent from New York five hundred pounds for the relief of the Messina sufferers. RELIEF MEASURES. PILLAGERS SHOT. VILLAGES DESTROYED. FISHING BOATS AND STEAM. ER3 SUNK. Received December 30, 9.20 a.m. ROME, December 29. British warships have gone to Messina. Relief measures are being hurried forward. Troops were compelled to shoot pillagers at work among the ruins. The prisons were destroyed by fire, and the prisoners escaped. Several barracks collapsed. Four thousand troops have started from Rome for Messina.

The Pope was greatly distressed when he heard of the disaster, and wished to go to Sicily, and render help. His doctors, however, forbade the journey owing to the state of his health.

The majority of villages b ordering the Straits of Messina were destroyed.

There were hundreds of victims in Calabria. Five hundred deaths are reported from the town of Patmi. Five hundred fishing boats and three steamers at Catania were sunk.

It is feared that Rcggio di Calabria, a city of 45,000 inhabitants, is destroyed. j ASPECT OF STRAITS ALTERED. COAST LINE CHANGED. Received December 30, 9.25 p.m. ROME, December 30. The earthquake has altered the aspect of the Straits of Messina and changed the coast line. # King Emmanuel has given £B,OOO to the fund established for the sufferers, and also a large stock of provisions and medical supplies. . THE DEATH ROLL. ANOTHER ESTIMATE. RUIN EVERYWHERE. TERRIBLE TIDAL WAVE. - Received December 30, 9.25 p.m. LONDON, December 30. The latest report of Reuter's correspondent shows that the deaths number 100,000, and the injured are even greater in number. The three provinces of Calabria were all devastated. Messina is practically destroyed, and ruin is everywhere in the surrounding provinces. Since the area of the disturbance was larger than in 1905, and the violence of the shocks more intense, the survivors dread an upheaval similar to that which destroyed Pompeii. A tidal wave 35ft high overwhelmed everything for over GCO yards inland at Messina and Riposto, causing greater destruction than the earthquake. Troops and volunteers succeeded in extinguishing the fires at Messina, restoring comparative order.

UNPRECEDENTED CATASTROPHE. INDESCRIBABLE PANIC THROUGHOUT CALABRIA. Received December 30, 9.35 p.m. ROME, December 30. Details which are hourly arriving by wireless telegraphy show that the catastrophe is unprecedented in Italy's history. Lighthouses along the devastated coasts are unworkable. Navigation is impossible at night and dangerous by day. Refugees declare that Reggio, Villasangiovanne, Scilla, Cannitella and all the communes and villages along the Straits, are a heap of ruins, burying innumerable victims. Mr Ogston, British Consul at Messina, was rescued with his daughter, but his wife perished. Crowds of survivors almost insane

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wander among the mins. The panic throughout Calabria was almost indescribable. Patima and Bagnara were practically destroyel, while around Montelnone, which was most affected, the dead can be counted by thousands. British, Russian, German and French warships have been sent to Messina. The Lord Mayor ot London has opened a Relief Fund. APPALLING ACCOUNTS. TERRiBLE SCENES. WORSE THAN DANTE'S INFERNO. Received December 30, 10.55 p.m. ROME, December 30. Refugees give appalling accounts of the disaster, and say Dante's Inferno gives a very pale idea of the scenes. M Messina in the early morning when the town was almost uprooted, those not instantly killed rose amidst falling beams and descended unsafe stairs to find the streets blocked by fallen houses, with balconies and chimneys thrown down in all directions. Everywhere streams of injured, half mad and nearly naked people, were shivering in torrential rain. The lower part of the town was inundated by a tidal wave reaching heaps o fugitives. Signor Fulci, a member of the late Zenardelli Cabinet, and his wife were buried in the ruins of their house. [

Thousands of refugees remained all day in the streets half naked, despite the torrential rains, filling the air with lamentations, prayers, and imprecations. At Pinozo, Catrome, Sante Severina, and Piscopio, people entered the half wrecked churches and took statues of saints ai d carried them in procession to the open country, where they invoked the men-cy of God in a downpour of rain. In the mountainous regions in the interior of grottoes, caves and subterranean cavities, peasants, priests, soldiers and gentlefolk are all living and sleeping together on the ground with a fir.2 burning in the centre of the group for heat. The Qoeen insisted on accompanying King Emmanuel to P.eggio and Messina.

The Pope, after being prevented from going, telegraphed his profound sorrow and consternation at the calamity. He ordered prayers for the dead and d.ying, and offered liberal help—probably a million lire. HORRORS INCREASED BY FIRE.

MT. ETNA ACTIVE,

Received December 30, 11.5 p.m. ROME, December 30. Fires resulting from the explosion of the gasometer increased the horrors. Hooligans and escaped prisoners loot id the town and pillaged the dead until soldiers were directed to shoot them. Mt. Etna showed considerable activity,, thus increasing the panic, though scientists do not anticipate a great eruption after the violence of the earthquake. Large bodies of troops are assisting in the rescue work. The heroism of the rescuers has been attended with some fatalities. All the finest palaces, churches, theatres and villas are a heap of ruins, covering decomposing bodies. The officers of the warship Sapio declare that half the people at Messina perished. About half-past 5 o'clock the sea became terribly rough, rocking the ships violently. Suddenly an enormous wave swept clown the Strait, devastating the coast, damaging vessels, destroying quays and docks.

ESTIMATED 120,000 KILLED.

Received December 31, 12.30 a.m ROME, December 30.

Some accounts estimate the mortality at Sicily and Calabria at 120,000. It is reported that 70 English and 43 German visitoi'3 were buried in hotel ruins at Messina. NO RECORD AT SYDNEY. Received December 30, 11.5 p.m. Seismographic records at the Observatory disclose no traces of the Italian earthquake. SOME PREVIOUS EARTHQUAKES. 742.—1n Syria, Palestine, and Asia; more than 500 towns were destroyed, and the loss of life surpassed all calculation. 1137.—Catania (Sicily) overturned, and 15,0u0 people buried in the ruins. 1158.—1n Syria: 20,000 perished. 1268.—1n Cicilia; 60,000 perished. 1456.-At Naples; 40,000 perished. 1531.—At Lisbon; 30,000 people and 1,500 houses buried in ruins; several neighbouring towns engulfed. 1596. —Japan; thousands perished; and several cities made ruins. 1C26. —At Naples; 70,000 lives lost, 30 towns and villages destroyed. 1667.—At Schamaki; 80,000 perished. The shocks lasted for ihree muiiths.

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I 1693.—Sicily. Fifty-four cities and towns and 300 villages bVWtunied. Catania and its 18,000 inhabitants disappeared without leaving a trace. More than 100,000 lives lost. 1703.—Jeddo (Japan) ruined; 200,000 perished. 1716. -Algiers; 20,000 perished. 1731—Pekin; 100,000 people swallowed up. 1746. Lima and Callao demolished; 18,000 perished m ruins. 1754.—At Grand Cairo; 40,000 persons swallowed up. 1773.—Guatemala; Santiago, with its inhabitants, swallowed up. 1780.—Tauris; 15,000 houses

wrecked, and multitudes of people kilied. 1797.—The whoie country between Santa Fe and Panama destroyed, including Cuzco a and Quito; 40,000 people swallowed up in one second. .1856. In Calabria; Montemurro and other towns destroyed, and aoout 10,000 lives lost. 1860. Mendoza, South America; about 7,000 lives lost. 1807.—The cities of Arequipa, Iquique, Sacna, and Chencha, and many small towns in Peru and Ecuador destroyed; about 25,000 lives lost. 1875.—San Jose de Cuouta and other (owns near Santar.der, on the boundary of Colombia, de^" stroyed; about 14,000 lives lost. 1884. —Several towns destroyed— Alhama, Granada; many killed; Periana, about 900 killed. 1885. —Severe shock at Srinagur, Cashmere; 3,081 deaths. 1893. —Destructive shocks in Servia, Bulga'ria, and Hungary; several villages destroyed. 1899. —At Aidin, Asia Minor; two villages destroyeJ, and more lhan 1,600 deaths. 1899.—Tiflis, Russia; six villages destroyed, about 1,000 deaths. 1906.—Destruction of San Francisco; Valparaiso, great loss of life. 1907.—Kingston, Jamaica; about 1,000 deaths.