The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 1882. EARTHQUAKES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1058, 26 April 1882, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 1882. EARTHQUAKES.

An old and esteemed settler in this district, Mr S. Ymmu of Tauherenikau, has come out in the character of i an alarmist, threatening the big brick buildings of our Nineveh at Port Nicholson with destruction through the agency of earthquakes. He says very properly that facts must be faced, and ' quotes as facts a mountain near Masterjton which was rent in twain by the earthquake of J855 and simultaneously near Greytown jj, permanent upheaval of one part of the pjajn' and a subsidence of another portion of it, We believe the experience of scientists fie adverse to the phenomena recorded by Mr Vennell. Apparent alterations of the natural surface levels have often been recorded, but whenever they have been tested by actual measurement, they jiovo proved to be fallacies. Earthquake? quite sufficient apprehension in this colony already, and it is very undesirable "that they: should be represented as more dan-' gerous than they absolutely are. We do not for one moment suppose that Mr Yennell would misrepresent their phenomena, but like many more thoroughly trustworthy infornmnts, he may have mistaken their indications, He also propounds a theory respecting jtjheir pjjrjpdicity which like his'facts may be feirjy faced. He reports severe shakes as occurring in J834-5, in 1840,, to 1841, and in 1855, and infers from. the intervals which elapsed between these shocks thai a repetition should be expected every seven years. Three periods of this duration have passed without heavy shakes and a fourth is about to close which he evidently believes will fetch them, We would remind Mr Vetoll that earthquake experiences are tolerably common all over the world, and that the records of many ages totally upset his theory of periodicity, Out of 116 earthquakes which have been recorded as the principal ones which have occurred,' and all of which have been of a severer character than any experienced in New Zealand, not less than one hundred were not only without periodicity but as far as the localities were concerned in which they took place they were solitary, isolated catastrophes, On November 1,1755, for example, Lisbon fell in ruins and thirty thousand-of its inhabitants were destroyed. Yet in the hundred and twenty-eight years which have subsequently elapsed/tbore has boen no repetition of the calamity even on a small scale. We will, how

ever, cite those instances where SGvero earthquakes have succeeded each other to show what a.slender: basis there is for any calculation of periodicity, ', At the- head of the list: stands Naples' which has withstood six tremendous' convulsions which occurred in the years 1456, ■ 1026, 1688,. 1732, 1794, "and' 1857, at intervals varying from 56 to 70 years, Calabria's calamities happened in 1783,1685,1805, and 1859. Chili was swallowed up in 1730, up-' heaved in 1822, and shaken in 1835. Constantinople was tried in 557 and 986. St, Domingo was overturned in 1783 and in 1842. Severe shocks in England are recorded to have taken place in 1543 and 1318. . Japan, a favorite haunt for phenomena, has for its years of earthquake mournii)'g : 1596, 1704, 1854, and 1855, Lima collapsed in 1716 and was again much injured in 1821, Palermo was made a ruin in 1725 and was again shaken up in 1739. Quito was destroyed in 1755, 1797, and 1859, and Smyrna was wrecked in 1688 and 1778. It is impossible in the face of evidence of this kind to admit any theory of periodicity. Some countries are more liable than others to tlieso visitations, but no country can be said to be absolutely secure from them. On an average there are about twelve destructive earthquakes per annum cm the surface of the globej but where they will occur cannot be predicted. We have no reason for any special dread of them in New Zealand, and we feel assured that we possess no facts which justify us in anticipating their recurrence at any stated times or seasons.