UNSTEADY WESTPORT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 48, 25 February 1913, Page 5

UNSTEADY WESTPORT.

MORE SHOCKS LAST NIGHT. NO FURTHER DAMAGE. WOMEN AMD CHILDREN UNNERVED. (By Telegraph —press A£&.idatlon.) WESTPORT. this day. From eight o'clock yesterday morning till 11.30 last night the community -was undisturbed by earth shocks. Then came a repetition of the dull boom ■with little vibration. At 12.17 a.m. another cannonade was heard, followed byvery pronounced shaking. Xo damage was done by any of the numerous shocks since the lively couple of minutes at 12.36 on Saturday. The origin of the disturbances is plainly to the south-west of Westport, and it must be relatively close lib, as no damage was done at Greymouth on one side, and only the initial shock was felt at Karamea on the other side.

Colliers describe Saturday's experience as pandcmoniutn let loose. Women and children throughout the district are unnerved.

FELT AT SEA.

STEAMER KATOA AFFECTED. TREMBLES FROM STEM TO STERN. Upon the arrival of the Union Company's KatoS from Westport ■this morning Captain A. T. Norton reported that at 12.3S p.m. on Saturday last. Ills steamer had been lifted by somn tremendous submarine disturbanrc, and shaken from stem to stern. At the time of the occurrence the Katoa was sixteen miles out at sea from Westport, and. was travelling at a fair rate through water, which was shown on the chart to be 35 fathoms deep.

In speaking to a ' - Star reporter. Captain Norton said that the sensation at the time of the upheaval was as though the steamer had been raised lrom the Water, and was scraping her way over a deielict. Although the duration of the ?hock was only three or four seconds, the crew rushed from the fo'c'sle on to the deck, disturbance did not have any appreciable effect upon the sea, but it may be presumed that the upheaval below that caused such a shock upon a sturdy vessel like the Katoa was a farreaching one. Captain Norton is of the opinion that the centre of the shock was out at sea. It will be noticed that the time at which the "quake was felt on the steamer was just two minutes after it was recorded in Westport.

ECHO IN AUSTRALIA.

SYDNEY, this day. The Government astronomer reports that the earthquake which occurred in Westland, New Zealand, was registered in Sydney, though the record was nothing like what fie expected fr6fn the cabled accounts of the occurrence. The seismic waves caused only a very slight displacement here. The centre of the disturbance most likely occurred in strata directly under the surface of the earth. The waves would thus quickly reach the surface and cause considerable damage, but the severity would be felt only locally. The tremor reached here at lomin. 2sec past 11 on the morning of the 22nd.