ANOTHER FRIGHT

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 92, 21 April 1925, Page 6

ANOTHER FRIGHT

FOR QUEEN CITY OF THE NORTH

PEOPLE THOUGHT IT WAS AN EARTHQUAKE.'

(« TIUGKAPB.— SPECIAL TO TUB POST.)

AUCKLAND, This Day. Many Aucklanders experienced considerable alarm yesterday concerning what they felt was the end of the Queen City's long comparative immunity from earthquakes. A series of shocks "during the afternoon considerably disturbed the equanimity of many good Aucklariders, and quite a number did not sleep so well last night as usually. They were uu- »™« until they read this morning's Herald" that the startling occurrences were not earthquakes at all ■ they were simply the aftermath of a disaster at the Western Wharf six months a«o. The collapsed portion of the wharf after the disaster has remained a tangled mass of broken concrete and twisted steel. To salvage this was out of the question, and the removal of it to a dumping place was estimated to cost no less than about £30,000, a quite impossible proposition in the considered judgment of the board. It had been decided to break it up as far as possible by gelignite, and sink it on the spot. ALL THE FEARS AND FOREBODINGS OF YESTERDAY. Five charges of gelignite, each of about forty pounds weight, were exploded at intervals. As the charges exploded they scattered concrete and steel in all directions, and incidentally sent a huge column of water high into the air, like. a miniature Waimangu. Fishes swimming unsuspectingly in the harbour received an even worse fright than the worthy citizens who though that a series of earthquakes were occurring. Dead fish were seen floating iu*all directions, and seagulls, who were in close attendance, had a goodly feast. The tenant of a portion .of a, floor in the city's highest building was so frighten-. Ed that he declared his intention of terminating his lease. He is now reconsidering the matter.

There is less tension in the city today.