DR. HAAST ON THE EARTHQUAKE AT CHRISTCHRCH.

We extract tlie following from a report supplied to the Canterbury Press by Dr. Kaast relative to the recent earthquake at Christcliurch; — The morning of the sth of June was remarkably clear and beautiful, with, a rising barometer. When at 8.30 sees, a.m., a considerable earthquake shock, the most severe I ever felt in Canterbury, visited Christchurch and its neighbourhood. This shock, coming from the south, lasted about three to four seconds ; it was succeeded after a short interval of two to three seconds repose by a slight tremor of very short duration. Another slight vibration of similar nature was experienced at 7.16 minutea p.m. I have been told that towards 12.30 p.m. a number of feeble shocks •was experienced, which, however, I did not , observe, although at that time I was Bitting in my office and writing. From the observations I wag able to make, the principal and first shock had, as near as possible, a magnetic south and north direction, or from south 15deg. west to north 15deg. east. _ Thi9 first portion of the vibration in question was immediately followed by another, which came from the east, or at right angles to the first. As far as I could observe, no hollow subterranean rumbling sound preceded or accompanied the earthquake. Mr. George Dunnage told me, however, that he heard distinctly this low subterranean sound in his house at the river Styr, near the Christchurch and Kaiapoi road. As before observed, the first movement was from the south to the north ; the ground seemed to rise obliquely, and then to return immediately with a wave-like motion. During the first part of this shock, which seemed to me by far the most severe of the whole earthquake in vibration, the greatest damage was dove, as most of the objects were then thrown down. Jt was with feelings of great relief that I observed how comparatively little damage had been occasioned in Christchuroh, and that, with the exception of Lyttelton, this shock had not boen felt anywhere in New Zealand. That the earthquake was not felt so severely in Lyttelton as in the plains may be accounted for by the fact that the former town is built upon volcanic rocks, which have a far greater elasticity than sand and gravel, on which Christchurch stands. It thus appears that this earthquake is simply the dynamic effect of some abyssologieal disturbance in or near our neighbourhood, such as happens all over the globe by changes in the earth's crust, and generally at a very great depth below us. I think there is, therefore, no cause for theanxiety expressed tome by several of my fellow citizens that this earthquake might be the beginning of a series of still more vehement disturbances by which we are to be visited, although it is possible that a few minor onea may still follow in the course of the next few days. Others believe that the origin of this earthquake is connected in some way with Banks's Peninsula, an extinct volcanic system of considerable extent, whicu opinion in this instance I consider equally erroneous. I may, however, state that the primary direction of that disturbance closely corresponds to that longitudinal volcanic region, which, from the antarctic volcanoes Erebus and Terror, stretches across the intermediate islands also of volcanic origin toNew Zealand, and ou which lino ßanks's Peninsula is situated.