CONCERNING EARTHQUAKE THEORIES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 142, 15 December 1908, Page 8

CONCERNING EARTHQUAKE THEORIES.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — It was ' scarcely worth while for your Auckland correspondent to telegraph Mr. Stevenson's theories on tho causes of earthquakes. The views expressed are not new ; are not Mr. Stevenson's ; and are, as it happens, quite untenable. "Very wide awake," no doubt (according to Gilbert and Sullivan), is tho harmless moon — blamed nevertheless for occurrences and conditions for which she is altogether innocent. At one time a man could not go mad, even from religion or whisky (either of which things, if taken with moderation, are perhaps beneficial) without bringing in the moon to account for his vaganes — hence the word "'lunacy." But careful observation, combined with common-sense, long ago exployed the idea that our nightly luminary takes any part in filling our hospitals for the insane with Emporors and millionaires. And in like manner (he idea that the positions of oarth, moon, and sun caused seismic disturbances had to be abandoned, in view of known facts. The first and conclusive objection to the theory came from Japan. Sir Robert Ball states that in Japan there are from 900 to 1000 earthquakes in the year, occurring at all times and seasons of the year. His own opinion as to the cause of these — and nearly all other earthquakes — was the shrinkage of the crust of the earth owing to tho loss of internal heat. In somo countrips, says Mylne, earthquakes are of daily occurrence. Then, again, in Japan severe _ earthquakes occur at the same time, in places removed from each other by hundreds of miles, a. dead calm prevailing over tho intervening country. The ccuse, therefore, that produced the ono disturbance, _\\ as, probably, not the cause that produced the other. And indeed here it may be that one finds the truth that no one cause is responsible for these visitations, but that more than one, perhaps several causes combine to produce the earthquake. At all events, up to this day nothing certain is ascertained on the subject, and no single theory accords with known facts. Earthquakes themselves present all sorts of diversities. The great Lisbon earthquake (1755) was felt over an area of the earth 3300 miles long and 2750 miles wide, while that at Kingston, which utterly destroyed that city, was hardly felt outside tho city proper. Some earthquakes are accompanied, preceded, or followed by a roar like thunder, while others strike people with tho terror of dead silence. In 1750 Great Britain experienced numerous shocks of these latter character; they frightened tho multitude moro than the rumbling of horse and cannon on the high road to war. A very easy explanation of the shocks was in those days propounded, and the record of these is to bo found in sermons, which tell us that those shocks are direct visitations from above "brought about by increasing wickedness." And in a pamphlet about the earthquake at Palermo (1706) we read: — "The people seemed to be extremely humble and ponitent, scourging themselves, and doing penance." Even the countries subject, or not subject, to earthquakes cannot bo definitely indicated. This present desultory wriior remembers that visiting a State school in Bedigo, perhaps twenty-five years ago, ho saw hanging on tho wall a large chart purporting to show tho places and countries of the earth subject, and not subject, to these disturbances. The map was supposed to teach young people the fact fha\ itihere _ was an earthquake zone inside of which the earthquake area was, while those places outside the erratic circlo were free from seismio disturbances. The whole continent of Australia was in the free region on this map. No earthquake had ever been experienced anywhere over that immense tract. But it wasn't long after that a sharp shock occurred at Adelaide, and several others have taken place in various parts of that Dominion since. Of course the earthquake zone map had to be taken down. — I am, etc., H.R.R. Wellington, 12lh December, 1908.

A notice to members of the Builders' and Oontrnctora' Association, is published in our advertising columns.

The Rev. Dr. Erwin, Mrs. Erwin, and the Misses Erwin, of Christcfturch, are passengers from London by the Rimutaka, due in Wellington next Thursday, Yesterday a notice of opposition to the petition filed on behalf of the Nolicense party in respect of the Hutt local option poll was filed in the Magistrate's Court, Petone, hy Messrs. Skerrett and Wylie, on behalf of the Trade. To-day a cross petition was filed_ by the Trade in opposition to the petition filed by the No-license party, claiming a larger vote for continuance than that which was officially announced as the result of the recount. Both petitions are to be heard on 18th December at Lower Hutt. At Messrs. T. Kennedy Macdonald and Co.'s auction rooms to-day a house of six rooms, with section 40ft by 100 ft, belonging to the estate of Eade Bros., was sold to Mr. A. A. Gellatley (as agent) for £665. Various properfies in Robert Ayres's estate were passed in, and' are now open for private sale. The country and suburban schools cadet battalion, which has been in camp at Johnsonville for about a week, was inspected this afternoon by the Hon. Geo. Fowlds, Minister of Education. Major Burlinson was in command. Captain M' Donald, Adjutant of the Wellington volunteer district, was present. The reproach under which Christchurch has laboured since its youth, that of not possessing an efficient high-pres-sure water supply, will soon be swept away, and in a few months the streets will be a network of pipes (says the Lyttelton Times). The city has been singularly fortunate in possessing an artesian supply of exceptional power and general distribution, but for several years the natural supply has been decreasing, and with the growth of the city the need for a high pressure supply for sanitation and fire prevention purposes has been growing more and more acute. We (New York Post, of 20th October) are in receipt this morning of an invitatioD which makes us proud ; indeed. The Anglo-American Publishing Company of Temple Bar, London, intorms us that for the modest sum of 7 dollars 50 cents we may have ourselves and our families enrolled in its new epoch-making ■volume, entitled "America's Purple. ' This, we are told by its projectors, will "contain the names of America's most representative families, and insure for thorn the identification that books of exclusive social registration afford them at home, and which the 'Almanach de Gotha' and similar publications give to Europeans." Lest any fear that this invitation has been sent around promiscuously, we are informed that " 'America's Purple' will be compiled with such careful discrimination that registration between its covors will be proof of social eligibility." To make sure, too, that our right to wear the purple is_ fully known and understood, the book is to be dispatched to clubs, hotels, steamship libraries, and consulates the world over. We have long felt the need_ of such a book to enable us properly to impress our consuls when abroad, to hang up our beard bills at our hotels, and let those effete Europeans know that "there is an elite in this country as well as in their lands. Even a wifo's day at home is to be inserted for the 7 dollars _50 cents. But for this we care little. It is our day abroad that appeals to vs — the prospect of walking in upon some unsuspecting tradesman, buying two dozen pair of socks, and saying : "Charge that to me ; you'll find me in 'America's Purple.' " On Thursday next, at 5 p.m., in their rooms, Willis-street, Messrs. Levien, Shallcrass and Co. will offer, without reserve, a largo consignment of British ladies' and gentlemen's bicycles. The auctioneers invite inspection. Particulars are advertised in this issue.