BUILDING FOR SAFETY.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19691, 7 August 1929, Page 8

BUILDING FOR SAFETY.

EXAMPLE FROM EARTHQUAKE AREAS. A report on his investigations in the earthquake area is being prepared by Mr H. F. Baird, of the Christchurch Magnetic Observatory, and this will be submitted to the Government. While in the doomed areas, he took a great many photographs, some of which exhibit remarkable contrasts. Iji Murchison particularly there were buildings on one side of the road which came through practically undamaged, while those on the other were wrecked. Mr Raird attributes tjiis to the building material used, and to the way in which the buildings were constructed. He took particular notice of this phase of the damage, and found that, in nearly all cases, well-con-structed, reinforced concrete buildings withstood the shock. In some cases concrete buildings had been damaged, but 111 nearly all these cases inspection proved that the concrete used had been badly mixed or that there had been not enough supports to buttress the build inc. Where the roof was well braced and the concrete good, it was surprising how firm the buildings had stood. Not only was this the case in Murchison, in Takaka and Collingwood it was rery noticeable. Mr Baird's photographs showed how some of the streams in the Murchison district had changed their course in some cases flooding flat country near the river bed. Many of these flats, once farms, were now ruined. Lakes of fair dimensions had formed, and it looked as if some of them would be permanent.