MORE EARTHQUAKES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 143, 19 June 1922, Page 8

MORE EARTHQUAKES.

WORST YET EXPERIENCED. WAIRAKEI TO ORTJANTJI. NUMEROUS CRACKS IN GROUND. RESIDENTS GREATLY ALARMED. (By Telc^rapb.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. According to telegrams received by the Minister of Internal Affairs, earthquakes in the thermal regions continue. People nt Wairakei are very nervous, and are waiting word from Wellington as to whether they should leave the district. The latest 'quakes were the worst experienced in the centre between Wairakei and Oruanui, though the actual damage is slight. The difference of time of 'quakes at Taupo and Wairakei was two seconds. This leads experts to suppose the disturbance is close to the surface. The postmistress at Oruanui and the postmaster at Wairakei has been authorised to leave their posts, and to inform residents that they are doing so under Government authority. Oruanui reports numerous cracks in tlie ground a few inches wide, up to two chains long, and two to three feet deep. These may have eased the situation. To-day's messages are more reassuring. NEWS IN HOTOEUA. (L'y Telegraph.—Press Association.) ROTORUA, 12.2 p.m. this day. It is reported that a series of earthquake shocks, exceeding anything that has previously occurred during the last month, was experienced last night at Wairakei, Taupo, and Oruanui. Owing to the fact that there has been some disarrangement of the telephone service, uo official details have come to hand. It is stated that last night the number of the shocks was very considerable. Th? Oruanui that has been so often mentioned in the messages regarding the Taupo earthquakes, is a siding on the Taupo Totara Timber Company's steam tramway that runs from Putaruru across the Waikato River some four miles above Atiamuri, down to Mokai, within about twelve miles of Lake Taupo, only considerably more to the west than Wairakei and Taupo township. Owing to the great expense of carting stores from Rotorua to Taupo by the coach road that runs down the Waiotapu Valley, all the heavy stuff now goes down by the Taupo Totara Timber Co.'s steam tramline and is then run down the sixteen miles to Taupo township by motor lorries. The road from Oruanui passes through Wairakei, which is ten miles from the siding and six miles from Taupo township.