FALL OF PARAPETS

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 55, 6 March 1934, Page 8

FALL OF PARAPETS

DAMAGE AT WANGANUI

ROADS BLOCKED BY SLIPS

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) WANGANUI, This Day.' Apparently very alarming reports concerning the earthquake damage at Wanganui were circulated to other parts of tho Dominion, but the reports were greatly exaggerated, although the earthquako was ono of the most severe felt here for many years. It lasted approximately three minutes, and was followed by lesser earthquakes. More damage was done than on the occasion of the Murchison and Napier shakes. The most serious damage occurred at the woollen mills, and at the Rutland Hotel. Fortunately, nobody was injured. The Rutland Hotel boarders got a shock when the parapet overlooking Ridgway Street crashed through the balcony, bringing down telephone and electric wires. The parapet of Ross and Glendining's building, in Taupo Quay, fell to the footpath. Several plate-glass windows were damaged. Several hundreds of.pounds' worth of damage was done in the Renown Stores in broken crockery. About 25 feet of the brick chimney stack at the Wanganui Woollen Mills collapsed, a portion falling through the boiler-room and putting the economisers out of action. The walls of tho boilerroom building were also badly sprung. The mills aro not working today. There is no damage at Messrs. Kempthorne and Prosser's large fertiliser works. The top of the old brick stack at the j casein works is down. A number of slips have occurred on county roads in tho interior, blocking traffic. Tho colleges escaped damage. The boarders' quietly evacuated the premises. Thousands of tons of spoil were brought down in the Makirikiri Valley.