The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and Echo. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1888.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 234, 4 October 1888, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and Echo.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1888.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For tho -wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distanoe, And tho pood that wo can do.

The " Melbourne Age " makes the recent earthquake in New Zealand the text for somo reflections of a lugubrious kind. While admitting that England was liable to much more serious s.iock s during the Middle Ages than that which was lately experienced in Canterbury, and that a violent earthquake was ex. perienced in Essex within very recent times, yet no one in England seriously thinks of an earthquake as a possible calamity, the writer goes on to remark that "The experience of nearly 500 years has given a well-grounded sentiment of security in England. New Zealand, however, is not in this position. For anything we know, she may have been colonised during a period of quiescence, such as existed in Italy at one time, when the crater of Vesuvius was simply a depression overgrown with bushes and grass, in which sheep fed and in which robbers took refuge. If it should so be that the fires which smoulder underneath the surface are about to burst again through the cap that has formed over them, the interruption to the prosperity of the islands may be very tragical."

From the contemplation of such a possibility the writer goes on to speculate on the changes which would be wrought in the New Zealand population if earthquakes became so numerous as to make tall factory chimneys dangerous, and only buildings of a flimsy description, as in Japan, could be constructed with satety, and be winds up his highly-imaginative sketch with the following summary of New Zealand's misfortunes : —

It is said of the elder Rothschild that be never had dealings with anyone who was unlucky; and it certainly eeems at times as if luck played a very great part in the affairs of the world. New Zealand started admirably with a picked population on a magnificent soil, in a good climate, and she has been cursed with native wars, which have added millions to her national debt; with Sir Julius Vogel, who has again swelled it by millions of unproductive expenditure ; a.;d now, when she is at the lowest ebb, the earthquakes > have come to frighten capitalists and immigrants, as there can be little doubt even the slight shocks felt are certain to do. Sir Julius Vogel'a disastrous policy was, of course, partly the fault of the country that trusted him ; bub it would be hard to hold colonists accountable for having settled in a country with dangers which science itself could not accurataly measure. The probabilities are that a singularly intelligent, and energetic ' people will rise to the necessities of the situation, whatever they may prove to be. If the centre of disturbance is shifting southward, Auckland and the Northern districts generally may perhaps find themselves able to supplant the South.

Who would have thought that so mild an occurrence as the toppling over of 25 fest of Christchurch Cathedral spire would have conjured up such wild visions ! Why, within the last two or three years Colchester Cathedral, England, has suffered more damage lrom earthquake ; and the destruction in Charleston, United States, last year, from a series of shocks, was a hundred times greater than anything that happened during the Canterbury seismic disturbances . yet no one feels any misgivings about the future of England, or supposes that the fate of Charleston is sealed. San Francisco is more subject to earthquakes than Christchurch, but the inhabitants are not deterred from putting up five-storied buildings, la his allusions to the North Island, the writer is also somewhat hazy. Earthquakes can never move southwards from Auckland, for the simple reason that during the history of settlement in this city, now nearly fifty years, such disturbances have been wholly unknown, or in the one .or two instances when earth tremors were said to have been felt they were of so mild a character that their occurrence at all was disputed,. Very few countries, if any, are wholly exempt from earthquakes. and if this were the only drawback which New Zealand had tq contend against, there would be very little cause for uneasiness regarding the present position or future prospects of the .colony,