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Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 112, 23 January 1873, Page 3

UNKNOWN

TnE London Times, of the Bth of November, hri9 the following account, of the hurricane in Sicily, which destroyed tlio town of Piilnzzuolo — " There has been no instance of Mich calamity within the memorj of living man ISo earthquake over caused so much destruction There are houses ruined • 'louses fallen to the ground; w ills cleft fro'n end to end; walls hangm-: outward bo as to rest on adjoining houses. Th -re aro rjofs wholly swept awm ; sunken balconies torn from tlieir places ; windows and shutters either entirely carried off, or hanging loose from the walls; lamp-posts forced from their sockets; uprooted trroi And this is all one sees along the north-east side of the town. Not one house remain 1 ' in which the whole roof ami windows do not require thorough repairs. The s( roots are a mass of fragments and rubbish. The incidents of the di-> r s f er arcsoatrai g-astobialmosij'ncredible. There was a 6tore with twenty-live hectolitres of wheat, of which nof a trace is to be seen. The books of excise, and of the land and registry offices, have vanished, and only their torn leaves have been found here and there at great distances. In one home all the copper kitchen utensils were blown through the roof In another, benches and heavy chests flew through tlio wuvlowj. The iron bars on one balcony are to be seen curled up one vr\y, and those of another tw isted up another way. There is a pillar of tho palace which has been moved forward one foot without breaking, aud stan Is up isolated all in one piece. Tliero is tho wall of another palace which has fallen back more than three feet without a crack. Heie is the boam of ono house which has thrust itself into another house. There is the half of a bedstead, the other half c f which lies m one knows w lerc. All the li'cs of one building aie huddled together in one spot. Ono roof is crushed nml broken up as sm.ill as if it had been pot nde 1. The rafters of another building arc all bare, the tides having flown no one knows where. In a stable, on the bare ground, men are laying the boJie* one bj one as they arc being duj out. Most of them are in their niglit-drc33"s, having been crushed as they were quietly sleeping. Their features and forms arc so disfigured that one cannot look at them without shuddering. Their nostrils cars, and mouths are stopped with earth and white dust, which has everywhere pierced the skm. llerei3 the body of a man holding close to his heart a child — probably his own child — the skulls of both shattered. There arc two young men in each other's a "ms — probably brothe 's — the cheats and backs of both crushed. Near them is another youth covered with blood. He was a clerk in a Government. office. Ho had his eje-glass still stuck in his right eye, ard was probably reading or writing when struck. There are some disfigured past recognition ; others that seem unhurt, and look m if they were sleeping. Without exaggeration, one-third of the town is ditm wiled, and more than 1000 families literally without a home. Above one hundred more have onlj' one little corner of what was onco their home to shelter them. The dead number thirtytwo, and the seriously hurt about half-a-seore besides.