HEAVY EARTHQUAKE.

Bush Advocate, Volume I, Issue 52, 4 September 1888, Page 2

HEAVY EARTHQUAKE.

' — ♦ . Early on Saturday morning an unusually heavy shock of earthquake was felt in the South Island.' It was most severe in Westport and Canterbury, and the inhabitants were conr siderably alarmed. The principal damage has been to the spire of the Christchurch Cathedral, and on this subject the correspondent of the Telegraph wires :— "Though the Christchurch people have had a terrible fright, and have to mourn the present loss of the chief architectural ornament to their city, there is no extent of damage done to private property. There is no sense or use in magnifying the loss, and therefore I writH this at once. Twenty-six feet of thejstone spire have broken down. The gilt cross and pieces of the stone work within a yard of the summit, and the finial, still hang aloft in a manner that is pitiful and dangerous. They are kept together by the bands of iron that are built into them, and the strong iron rod running down the centre, and form a melancholy addition to the wounded aspect which the truncated spire now wears, Beyond this damage, and several holes in the roof, the building is intact. As to the remainder of the town, the only real damage done has been to the north and north-west quarters. The same thin? was experienced in the frhock of June Sth, 1869, and may, i I fancy, be due to the shaky peaty subsoil in that locality. At the Normal School and elsewhere chimneys have been left minus of their I tops, and insecure walls have been j cracked, and plaster dislodged in showers. Beyond this there is nothing serious.