HUNDRED YEARS AGO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 May 1940, Page 3

HUNDRED YEARS AGO

A NIGHT OF TERROR EVENTS AT PORT NICHOLSON. CORNISH ROW BURN OUT. One hundred years ago. on the night ef May 25, 1849. die residents of the infant settlement at Port Nicholson were alarmed by the first of a scries of disquieting events which must have done much Io promote a sense of insecurity in their new country. Tha' night a row of cottages wont up in flames, and their owners, though they easily escaped themselves, lost all theii personal belongings, In Cornish Row as the little beginning of a street or land behind Petone was called, about fourteen houses wore burned in the space of twenty' minutes. Cornish Row had been built only a few weeks before by some settlers from Cornwall who had come out under the wing of F. A. Molesworlh. The Maoris from the Pito-onc Pa danced round the flames in high glee, but the settlers owned the burninc cottages, frail structures of rood and flax, and did not dance. The "Nov.Zealand Gazette," New Zealand's first newspaper, recorded that the sufferers were mostly very poor people, whose greatest loss had been of children’s clothing, and appealed to the ladies of Port Nicholson to rally round and help them. The Rev J. G. Buller preached a special charily sermon on their bchall on the following Sunday.

SETTLERS’ FIRST EARTHQUAKE.

It was putting a great strain on the endurance of the Port Nicholson settlers when this small but disastrous fire was followed by an earthquake—the first in their experience. It occurred in the early hours of the morning of May 26. The “Gazette” rose, to the occasion. “The excitement of the fire had hardly ceased, when the Colonists wore aroused by an undulatovy movement of the earth, and a somewhat severe shaking of their houses . . . . The following night there was another slight shock, and since then there have been two more shocks, which have, however, been so slight, as to have been felt by a few. The first shock was by far the severest and longest in duration; it was not. however, the cause of any mischief, though it alarmed some of the inhabitants .... Some persons declare they distinctly' heard sounds which came from the northwest, like firing cannon; if so, it is not. improbable it will be found that the volcano at Mount Egmont has again burst forth, or that the volcano in the interior has increased in activity." This was not the end of the trials the Petone settlers had to endure during this troubled week, for on May 30 the Hutt River overflowed its banks, for the second time since the arrival of the colonists. The lower part of the Hutt Valley was then very swampy, and the river had more than one channel. LATER EARTHQUAKES. Two later earthquakes caused much greater damage to early Wellington. On October 16. 1948, there was the first severe shock, accompanied by a “distant hollow roar.” "The scene can never be described," wrote a contemporary journal, and then went on to describe it—“the crashing' of houses, the fall of bricks, the hurrying to and fro of women and children, and the incessant wave-like motion of the earth, producing a chill at the heart and a dreadful feeling of sickness, were more than sufficient to appal the stoutest minded in the place.” This earthquake damaged many buildings, the clay and brick structures, of which there were a number already in Wellington,- suffering most. This was the first indication the residents had that special construction would be needed to withstand earthquakes. * REFUGEES TURN BACK.

Two children killed in Farish Street were the only deaths. In assessing the effect on the public mind of these new shocks, it is well to remember another event which had just cast a gloom over the whole settlement—the death of Colonel William Wakefield, who had founded the town. Colonel Wakefield had died on September 19, 1848, and there can be no doubt that he would have rallied the spirits of the inhabitants and prevented the attempt made by some of the colonists to abandon New Zealand for Australia. About forty-five of those people sailed on the Subraon, but, ironically enough, the vessel was wrecked without loss of life at the Heads, when the refugees decided to stay after all. Moreover, when Auckland offered £5OO for relief, the Wellington residents agreed to refuse it, lest the damage should be considered greater than it was. When the next bad earthquake occured in February. 1855, the inhabitants were better prepared for it. Although this earthquake worked greater havoc in the surrounding districts, its effects in Wellington itself were slighter than the 1848 earthquake, which was said to have done £15,000 damage. Baron Alzdorf, a popular Austrian who kept a hotel, was killed in the ruins of. his hostelry. These earthquakes served as a warning to the inhabitants to build earth-quake-proof buildings. It was therefore fortunate that they occurred so early in the history of settlement. But at the time they caused the inhabitants great anxiety and discomfort, borne, however, with fortitude and determination.