ITALIAN CALAMITY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 4, 6 January 1909, Page 7

ITALIAN CALAMITY.

AFTER MANY DAYS.

SOME VICTIMS RESCUED ALIVE. By Telegraph.— Press Association. --Copyngtit. ROME, sth January. Some persons were rescued alive from the ruins of Reggio yesterday. A WHOLE FAMILY RELEASED. (Received January 6, 11.40 a.m.) ROME, sth January. An entire family was released at Messina yesterday, almost uninjured, though many of the ruins are being flooded with carbolic acid to overcome the stench. AID FOR THE SUFFERERS. MANSION HOUSE FUND GROWING. LONDON, sth January. The Mansion House Fund has reached 1 £40,000. It. is understood that the Government will make a direct grant. AMERICA'S LIBERAL HELP. 'VOTES PASSED BOTH HOUSES. NEW YORK, sth January. President Roosevelt's special message to Congress declared that the proposed grant for the relief of the Italian sufferers was prompted by obligations of humanity, and by the fact that many good American citizens were formerly Italian immigrants ; also by gratitude for the abundance wherewith God has blessed the Americans in safety. Besides the half-million dollars (£100,000) both Houses voted 300,000 dollars (£60,000), representing the steamers Celtic's and Culgoa's supplies. The American Red Cross Society has telegraphed 390,000 dollars (£78,000) to the American Committee in Rome to charter a steamer, with supplies, to re- - move survivors. MESSAGE FROM THE KING. THANKS TO THE BRITISH FLEET. (Received January 6, 8.15 a.m.) LONDON, sth January. King Edward has telegraphed expressing high appreciation and approbation of the energy and gallantry displayed by the officers and men of the British Mediterranean fleet in dealing with the disaster. THE POPE'S KINDLY 1 ' INTEREST. VISIT TO THE SUFFERERS. (Received January 6, 8.15 a.m.) ROME, sth January. •At the instance of Signor Nathan, the Jewish Mayor of Rome, the Vatican gladly received a Datcb of suffering survivors in the hospital outside the Pope's territory. ' His Holiness passed over the archway ■ to the hospital, and comforted the sufferers. Signor Nathan visited the hospital later, and exchanged with Cardinal Merry del Val, the Pontifical Secretary of State, cordial greetings. EXCITED IMMIGRANTS. (Received January 6, 8.15 a.m.) NEW YORK, sth January. There were frantic scenes at New York among two hundred Calabrian aad Sicilian immigrants before landing, on learn ing for the first time of the disastei. NEW SOUTH WALES GRANT. MEETING IN THE TOWN HALL. (Received January 6, 8.55 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. The State Government is cabling £5000 to the Italian earthquake relief fund. The Lord Mayor (Alderman Allen Taylor) presided at a meeting held in the Town Hall to inaugurate a public fund. The sum of £875 was subscribed. MESSINA TO BE REBUILT. MONEY ADVANCED BY GOVERNMENT. (Received January 6, 11.40 a.m.) ROME, sth January. King Victor Emmanuel and the Government have determined that Messina shall be rebuilt, the Government lending the money on very favourable terms. The Government expects to raise 180 million lire (£7,200,000) for the purpose by increasing the tax on land and in- . comes. Messina will be exempted from payment of property tax for a quartei of a century. MISHAP TO A BATTLESHIP. 'ANCHOR-CHAINS BROKE. (Received January 6, 11.40 a.m.) ROME, stb January. After a sharp shock of earthquake at Messina yesterday the British battleship Exmouth got caught m a current and snapped her anchor-chains. Tho vessel drifted two miles before control was recovered. ADMIRAL SPERRY'S FLEET. BOUND FOR NAPLES. LONDON, sth January. Reuter's Washington correspondent states that the first division of Admiral Sperry's fleet has been ordered to Naples to assist in the work of relief. Ko other Italian ports will be visited. DOMINION RELIEF FUNDS. DUNEDIN, sth January. At a meeting held this afternoon, presided over by the Mayor, it was decided to hold an entertainment on January 12 in, nid Df the l'disf t'ttlid fgt »ugor»VA by the $&rth.guaJ<fcr

ME. CLEMENT WRAGGE'S THEORY. STORMS ON THE SUN. AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW, TELEGBArH.— Special to The Post.] AUCKLAND, This Day. Mr. Clement Wragge, the well-known meteorologist, who is at present in Auck land, wns interviewed yesterday by a reporter in regard to the probable causes of the earthquake at Messina. "We have," said Mr. Wragge, "just come through the most remarkable period ctf solar _ activity on record. The sun has maximum and minimum moods, and during tho former great cyclones, which form the sun spots, are more pronounced than at any other time. On this occasion the maximum period has been unduly prolonged, and ought to have come to an end, according to all former observations, in the early part of 1907. As a matter of fact, ever since the storms have been getting somewhat less, although there have been abnormal solar cyclones noticeable on several occasions. Everything in the universe," said Mr. Wragge, "from the mighty sun down to the insignificant mosquito, exists in an ocean of ether. Ether is an ocean of electrons or corpuscles, or, to be more explicit still, a great ocean of electricity, in which everything is plunged. When, m any way, this ether is disturbed, you set in motion vibrations in just the same way as Marconi messages are transmitted from one continent to another — to and fro. The instruments are in harmony one with another, but the vibrations in this case are only tapped when one instrument responds, and is able to grasp them. This can only be received by an instrument in harmony with that from which the vibrations were set up, or, m the alternative, an instrument in such a condition as will respond. FROM STTN TO EARTH. "To explain the position: Any abnormal disturbance in the sun sets up an acceleration of electrons. Whenever an electron is accelerated with positive forces on the one side and negative forces on the other (and positive and negative rule the universe), a like disturbance is set up in the ether, which, as I have said, Units together everything, and therefore the sun with the earth; but with the huge rate of 186,000 miles per second at which electricity travels through the ether (analogous to the speed of light), the distance of 93,000,000 miles from the sun to the earth is as nothing, and eight minutes suffice for this disturbance or vibration of ether to be transmitted from the sun to this planet. Marconi's instrument is the merest toy compared with this colossal apparatus. Think of the enormous hydrogen flames forked like a tree, rising like antennae to a height of 300,000 miles from the sun, and compare it to Mareeni's installation. This acts as a controlling force, and there is as intimate a connection between the inherent forces of the sun and the inherent forces of the earth as there is on the telegraph between Auckland and Wellington. HOW THE QUAKE OCCURRED. " All the minimum mood of the sun is gradually coming; yet this abnormal maximum period is very stubborn, -and is, as it were, trying to hold its own. As evidence, there is this rising solar outburst, and under its influence these vibrations have been flung off by two big storms now showing on the face of the sun, and which I am able to show you, by means of the solar telescope. The positions where the surface of the earth is weak, or such as are particularly responsive, at once respond; ttms we have these fearful outbursts which have recently occurred in South Italy, where the crust of the earth has responded only too readily to the vibrations set up by the two sun storms." Mr. Wragge then brought out his solar telescope, and by pointing it at the sun a circle of light was reflected on a sheet of paper placed at the eye-piece. On- this -were seen two prominent spots, wiflt a third and smaller one at the side. "Those two," said Mr. Wragge, "were without doubt the cyclones that caused the big earthquake. I first noticed them appear on the edge of the sun about six or seven days ago, just about the time of the quake." I Speaking of the Whakatane eorthI quakes, Mr. Wragge said that the time is coming when for some years earthquake action will in the main be transferred from the northern to the southern hemisphere. "I am not saying this to frighten the peonie of New Zealand, but they must draw their own conclusions. I think we may reasonably expect to hear of earthquakes in the southern hemisphere during the next few years. The time is also coming when we will be able to forecast these earthquakes as well as the probable weather for two or three years ahead." £5000 FROM NEW ZEALAND. Cabinet yesterday decided to send the sum of £5000 as a gift from tho people of New Zealand for the relief of the sufferers by the earthquake in Italy. The Mayor of Wellington (Hon. T. W. Hislop) has opened a relief fund in aid of the sufferers. Donations may be forwarded to the Town Clerk. The following additional subscriptions have been received by Mr. Roland Robertson, Consular agent for Italy :—: — Dr. Borghetti £1, Cuptain Dodero 10s, Mr. A. Gras 6s, Mr. Joseph Joseph £25, Mr. F. Barraud £1 Is. " The following subscriptions have been received at the Evening Post office :—: — Rev. van Staveren £1 Is, "Sympathiser" ss, P. Bitossi 7s.