EARTHQUAKE SCARS

Evening Star, Issue 24265, 5 August 1942, Page 4

EARTHQUAKE SCARS

WELLINGTON BUSY ON REPAIRS

TRAMWAY SERVICES REORGANISED (Special.). W ELLIN GTQ.N, Aug. 5. Spectacular resuits 'of 'Sunday's eartuquaKo are now more prominent in Wellington as damaged buildings are being temporarily reimorced anu scaffoldings erected, while roped-olf footpaths and blocked roads provide other indications of danger not perceptible from tbo, street. .Wellington’s tramway system is suffering drastic changes owing to the danger of using Manners street, a short, narrow tnoroughfare connecting Willis and' Cuba streets. Several hundred yards in Manners street. resemble a blitzed area. A private hotel damaged in June was under reconstruction when Sunday’s shock piled more wreckage over the 'scaffolding.- A brick, building almost opposite -developed dangerous cracks, requiring shoring up, and a licensed hotel ■ with crooked parapets is getting a protect tivo covering of scaffolding, two other hotels in the street receiving similar attention. .Business is suspended in .several shops because customers cannot safely reach them, though the majority of shopkeepers in tne area manage to keep going with, back entrances or covered ways to their front doors. Manners street' was the- busiest section of the tramway system, but is .now filled with building material and lorries. Trams are being routed from Lambtoh Quay to the waterside, the two connecting lines being fortunately available and enabling all services 'to be maintained. Willis street is also open. The city authorities had hoped to use the southern tram lines in Manners street, but the scaffolding inspectors fear a danger from vibration, and therefore Wellington must endure tram diversions till the Government authority gives the “ all clear.”