AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE. THE NEW MESSINA. A CITY OF WOODEN HUTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 129, 27 November 1909, Page 15

AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE. THE NEW MESSINA. A CITY OF WOODEN HUTS.

Writing recently of the steps taken to restore Slessina after tho terrible earthquake at the end of last year, the correspondent of a Home paper says : — At last it may be said that there is something like an ordered town at Messina, and that local industries are more or less flourishing. It is calculated that over 65,000 people are now housed in the different quarters, composed of wooden houses and huts, which have been constructed to the south of the old town, overlooking tho Straits, or which stretch inland, in one case for more than a mile and a half, on either side of a road some 22 yards wide. Until lately the huts have consisted only of a ground floor, but

now some aro being erected with another story, though, with tho exception of churches, hospitals, and large rooms for schools, which are permitted to be about 42ft, no building in new Messina may be more than 30ft high. The rooms aro about 13ft square, the ground floor houses containing two, and thoso with an upper story four rooms. In both cases the little kitchen is separate, and is built of brick. The new buildings, which are laid out according to an official plan, consist chiefly of two large blocks of streets, one of 4000 huts, at the left of the old town, and another, to tho right, tho more important of the two, called the Piano Mosella, which has 6000 huts, and in whioh are to be found several churches, most of the official buildings, and a great many shops. This quarter was built on cultivated land near the ruined city, which was expropriated for the purpose, and, 6t» far a3 possible, all the trees havo been left standing, which gives it a much more picturesque appearance than tho other new parts. Within its borders is the American village, smartly painted in white and green, which, together with tho Hotel Regina Elena, a church, and three public schools, wero all constructed of wood sent from America, and built under the supervision of American carpenters. There are also two cinematographs — a proof that in Messina there are now not only ftio necessaries of life, but also amusements.