EARTHQUAKE OF 1901

Press, Volume C, Issue 29672, 16 November 1961, Page 14

EARTHQUAKE OF 1901

Cheviot Shock Anniversary

Today is the sixtieth anniversary of the Cheviot earthquake, which at 7.45 a.m. on Saturday, November 16, 1901. spread a trail of destruction over a wide area in the northeastern part of North Canterbury. In Cheviot itself, practically all the houses were wrecked. Houses in towns from Kaiapoi north lost their chimneys and crockery and glassware were broken, and in Christchurch the Cathedral spire was damaged in two places. The heaviest shake seems to have been in the Parnassus-Conway river area, where, fortunately, there was practically no settlement at the time. Several people were injured, all in Cheviot, and there was one death, Charles Johnson's infant son, who was killed when a cob wall fell on him in his cot. In the Conway valley, a limestone slide created a temporary lake two acres in area, and toe road from Cheviot to Port Robinson was buried 40ft deep by tons of rock shaken down from the high bluffs. The hero of the hour in Cheviot was probably toe relieving telegraphist, S. J. Williams, who, although the post office had collapsed around him, succeeded in keeping in contact with Christchurch by makeshift repairs carried out with toe aid of jam tins and preserve bottles. He recorded each of 21 jolts which followed the first major shake during toe first day, and toe succession of others which kept toe nerves of the settlers at break-ing-point for toe next week or more.

Immediate relief was fairly slow in arriving, as toe nearest railway was at Waipara. A fund was soon started in Christchurch, however, and liberal donations made. A committee of city women took Cheviot women and children into toeir homes for a few weeks until they could return to their homes. Many of toe townsfolk, especially the shopkeepers, were ruined by the earthquake as there was no insurance against earthquake damage in those days.