SPECIAL ARTICLE. A SURVEYOR'S DIARY.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20624, 13 August 1932, Page 13

SPECIAL ARTICLE. A SURVEYOR'S DIARY.

TflE EARTHQUAKE OF 1888.

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Vr John Uaker. the wriiLT of „.->tr<; came to Now Zealand m r]ltir v' Survcv Oflicc helped in the When unknown parts of the 1 vince. 1.. I St*. Mr Baker joined l Z Southland Survey staft, and JL thirteen years' service there rttorned to Canterbury as duel Siirreyor.

jty next trip took mo up to Mt. wen to inspect a coal mine, and I "ftertrards rode to . Mesopotamia, and tten UP tlu> to Mr Mcßae's tftion, where 1 stayed.

vte—Mr Mollac had come to Canterbury 'in the ship in 1857. a e -worked on various stations in fanterburv and Otago, and was for ny rears head shepherd on Mr Butter's old run. Mesopotamia. Then l,e bought this run on the Raugitata, and later acquired other properties, Veludin" the Barford estate, which he bouebt°in 1900 from Mr Baker's brother-in-law. Mr Alex. Straehey. Vest day I rode further up the Raneitata, past the place where Butter &■■! had been washed down the lids-in I860; more than 27 years hrfore Mr Mcßae and 1 went on to ,hV elacier at the source of the river ] „d walked a long way up it, but not: 0 the top of tho Pass We then rode | hick' to the homestead, and the -next L I returned to Mesopotamia, where rLda couple of days' duck shooting up the Forest Creek, getting both teal and-mountain duck. Severe Earthquake. jggg On September Ist, ISSS, we were startled very early in tho morning lT an exceedingly heavy shock of earthouke, the severest felt in the bouth Island since IS6S, longer in duration than anv previously recorded in Chnstcanreh, which did considerable damage to the Cathedral spire, erected .at the oet of the late Robert Heaton Rhodes and the family of the late George Sodes, of Timaru. About 20 feet-of the top of the spire fell to the ground, and large stones were scattered over ,he footpaths in Cathedral Square so if the earthquake had come in the daytune, there would probably have been so me ? loss of life. Several other buildings were more or less damaged. In onr own house many ornaments were broken, and a marble statue of Diana that I had brought front Rome, fell from its pedestal and was smashed beyond repair. \ote.~The following account of the ' fall of the spire is from. a .Ghnsf church paper of September Ist An eye-witness who saw the fall of the B Jire described it in the following words: — . . fto. "The first view I got ot it, alter my attention was directed to it by the riiptg of. the bells, was seeing three orionr stones shoot out. Then the top part of the spire swayed for a » aeiond V two, having a f ™har ? . treWffffect in tbe.kina of half light Wh\i prevailed, and then as it wweato me, when the violence of m shock was over, down, toppled the whole of the topmost portvon, tie cross falling against the part of the tower which was standing. The fall of the stones and the ringing of the bells made a tremendous noise and for a few seconds I could hardly tell what had happened."

Progress of Work. In his report to the SurveyorGeneral for 188S, Mr Baker says:— "Minor Triangulation and Topographical Surveys.—As proposed in my report last year, four of the staff surveyors have been engaged on this work to enable me to get more reliable plans made of the pastoral country proposed to be relet next year in Canterbury. Mr "VPelch has been employed in the Okuku and Noble Survey Districts, situated in the northern part of the province, adjoining the Hurunui river; Mr Hay in the ML Somers and Hutt Survey Districts, in the Ashburton County, embracing the head waters of the north branch of the Ashburton river; Mr McClure has completed the Fox. >ft Peel, and Sinclair Survey Districts, in the Geraldine County, including the head waters of the Orari and the Havelock branch of the Rangitata river; and Mr Brodrick has been engaged in completing the triangulating of the North Tekapo and Godley Survey Districts, in the Mackenzie country, embracing the northern part of Lake Tekapo and the Macaulay, Godley and Cass rivers. The work undertaken by those officers has beep of the most arduous description The unusually late fall of snow in the early part of October last year, the fierce and ever-renewing north-west gales, which blew with such force "duiing the pasf summer months, and thVearly fall of snow this autumn, iave air helped to retard the progress of- the work, and necessitated the nigbest peaks being ascended again Wd again before satisfactory observations eould be obtained. The average height of the stations observed was "er 4500 ft, a great many of them over 6500 ft, and the highest I am glad to lie able to report N>at no loss of life has occurred, although Mr "Welch's party, whilst fordiag the South Hurunui river, /*we washed down it, barely escaping their lives; and Mr Brodrick had «ne of his men so badly ffost-bitten **kat he had to be sent to the nearest hospital The total area triangukted is 416.838 acres; and besides getting the topographical features of 'tktt, the topography of 335,154 acres of the higher portions of the mountain ranges extending far into the Southern Alps has been obtained by extending chain traverses to the wnrees of the various rivers and their Principal tributaries, the peaks and leading ridges being fixed by cross oearings, and other topographical features by cross bearings-and carefully prepared sketches taken from the various minor stations. The aver-

*(?« costs of the triangulation and topography was O.OSd. and of the •topography alone, 0.33 d per acre, •aicli includes everv cost in connextyi with the field parties to the end of.the season. The several surveyors . «M their parties pushsd on the work *Uh the utmost energy until they ***e. compelled bv the "approach of .•alter .to leave the high altitudes »"which thev had been camping. . Tho falculaUons'and topographical plans / been left to be compiled firing the winter months, I am """able to report definitely on the v *ripas closures which have been made *«jß previous work. The-rough calcukttons, however, show satisfactory ■ Jesuits."

t Government Criticised. I .fb* paragraph in the Teport refer"*g to the Government actions with T «gwd to retrenchment seems extra-

ordinarily bold as. eoming from a servant of that Government.

'' Retrenchment.—l sincerely regret that the reduction of this office staff ordered by the Government has led to the retirement of . . .'. and

and .... The compulsory retirement of officers after many years—perhaps a whole lifetime—given to the public service of the Colony, without any adequate retiring allowance, or without any pension, whilst other officers of perhaps shorter or not such valuaable service retire with a. good pension, simply because they happen to be appointed in the first instance by the General Government instead of the Provincial, is a great blot on the Civil Service of the Colony, and is probably without parallel in any Crown or constitutionally governed dopendency of the British Government; and I doubt if in any Civil Service in the world would such glaringly unequal and unjust treatment of public servants be tolerated."

Inspection of Buns. ISB9.—Towards the end of this year I had some very long rides with Mr McMillan and Mr Foster, the two other Run Classification Commissioners, going over all the properties in the lower part of Canterbury, south of the Knngitata Eiver. . I arrived home two days before Christmas, and a week after we started again at Hakataramea and visited all tho stations in the MeKenzie country, which took us- till nearly the end of January. Being near Mount Cook I went up to the Hermitage to see Mr Brodrick, who was now at work making the .complete survey of the Mount Cook glaciers. Setting out early one morning we crossed tho Mueller glacier, walked to the terminal face of the Hooker, Avhere we had lunch, and then walked on up the glacier to a point opposite the saddle at the end, afterwards named the Baker Saddle, where I had a magnificent view of the head of the glacier and of Mount Cook. It was nearly five p.m. before wo turned back, almost dark before wc regained the Mueller, and we did not reach the Hermitage till half-past nine, having done, the longest day's expedition in the Hermitage records of glacier walks. I am, of course, speaking of a >time before Mount Cook was ascended or any of the other bijt climbs made. I now gave Mr Brodrick instructions to have numbers painted on about a dozen of the larger rocks moving down the surface of the Mueller glacier and to fix their position by trigonometrical observation so that these might at a later date again be determined, and the rate at which the various parts of tho glacier were moving could be easily ascertained. I also asked him to range lines and fix rods on the Hooker, Tasman and Murchison glaciers, and a few monthß later to rerange the lines and measure the distance each rod had moved, so that the rate at which these glaciers were travelling should likewise be discovered. ■ ■ ' Note.—From Mr Brodrick's report published in 1891, it appears that the greatest movement of one of the rocks on the Mueller was 611 ft in twenty months (from March 28th, 1889, to November 14th, 1890), and the greatest movement of the rods placed on the Tasman was 49ft, \n a month (December sth, 1890, to January 7th, 1891). . , It was at this time that Mr Brodrick surveyed the Noeline glacier, and named it after the daughter of

his chief. _ , After a visit to the run on Lake Ohau we went up the Hopkins Eiver and then over the Benmore run_ and down the Omarama Biver to Kurow. Here I parted from the other com. Sonera and went to Otekaite, where my wife and daughter were staying, and turned with them to Chmtchnrch We then made a trip up the ***»* to Glenrock Gully, which ™ the J™; toral country that I had^discovered in 1860, about 29 years before. Later we rode over the Lake Heron country and up the Kangitata to the Clyde River, and then back to the Mount Somers Eailway Station. This, concluded the work of the Land Classification Commissioners, and we returned to Christchurch, After this Ihad to visit Wellington to sec the Minister of Lands about the classifications we had made. New leases were to be sub. mitted to auction at Timaru and Christchurch that autumn, and the object of our inspections had been to determine the size of the runs and the minimum rentals to be charged. In the middle of April I went down to Temuka and had a few days good duck shooting with Mr Clarke at Riccarton. ~ _ *„_ Note.-He was station supervisor for the Bank of New Zealand, and tins was one of the stations under his control.

(To be Continued.)

The "Sunday Times" has opened its columns to a discussion of the kind of books most relished by. juvenile readers. The headmaster of Malvern thinks the rising generation do not rely on reading books as much as their fathers did, largely because of the far wider range of magazines and papers available. Another headmaster says iz is no use giving a boy translations from foreign authors, for the different atmosphere bores' him. A mixture of humour and non-historical adventure, especially with a tinge of autobiography, suits him best. Several: correspondents agree that technical books on aviation, radio, machinery, and engineering have many devotees. School stories are reported to be extensively read up to the age of 13, but after this age the impossible exploits of their heroes begin to pall. Detective stones are generally popular. Few essayists or poets are welcome, but the opposition to poetry may sometimes be broken down by anthologies of modern vers-5. The suggestion is made that it is never advisable to include in a school library an edition of several works of one author in a uniform binding, as this easily repels young readers.

What is wrong with contemporary literature, says Mr Charles Morgan, the author of "The Fountain," is that there is so much of the big drum about it that many writers are unable to hear themselves think.. They are too much inclined to give lectures and speeches, to battle about sales and advertisements, to eat luncheons and attend parties, instead of giving themselves to the solitude and peace in which imagination might grow;

Mr Esme . Wingneld-Stratf ord, m a recent article, explains how the modern biographer contrives to avoid the trouble of acquiring a knowledge of the particular phase otWife or letters in which his subject was famous. ttis expedient is to emphasise "the Man. Subtract from the statesman his policy, from the general his soldiership, from the artist his art, from the thinker »as philosonhy, and the result is the Man.

Edward Holland, reviewing Arnold Bennett's "Journals" in the "Morning Post," thinks it a pity he'did.not ..make more use of his gift for satirical verse, and adds that he must be the only great English writer who newir mado a sonnet.