THE EARTHQUAKE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 77, 13 March 1934, Page 8

THE EARTHQUAKE

In Australian Eyes _ SENSATIONAL CAPTIONS Anybody here who does not know much about New Zealand, and who is equally unfamiliar with the manners and customs of Australian journalists, might have been a little alarmed on opening most of our newspapers to-day, says a Sydney correspondent writing on March 6. News of the New Zealand earthquake of Monday night had arrived, and several of the papers tried to make the most and the worst of it. In spite of the fact that—-as I have frequently explained—several districts in New South Wales are always in a condition of unstable equilibrium and suffer from intermittent “quakes,” there seems to be a fixed conviction in the public mind here that New Zealand is the natural home of such convulsions of Nature, and that it enjoys a practical monopoly of them. Accordingly the papers here fasten upon the faintest rumour of an earthquake in “the Shivery Isles’’ as “news” of a most acceptably sensational kind, and they handle it accordingly. The “Telegraph” camo out with a huge “scare-head” in immense type—“ New Zealand Rocks in Midnight 'Quake” — blazoned right across the front page, and it made special features of the “widespread consternation throughout the islands,” with appropriate details. “FLEEING LN I’AMU.” Of course, this suggested to the average reader that some overwhelming catastrophe had befallen New Zealand ; and a telling reference to the “memories of 1931,” when the Hawke’s Buy ’quake was attended with the loss of over 1-") lives, served still further to heighten apprehension here. The “Labour Daily” emulated the “Telegraph” with “Earthquake Rocks New Zealand” in large . capitals, and the vivid description of “people fleeing in panic” into the night and a few points about the falling of chimneys and the shattering of windows “at Wairarapa” gave further verisimilitude to this picture of ruin and desolation. This afternoon tho “Sun” has struck the same note with colossal captions—- “ Panic Scenes,” “Midnight Shock,” “Hysterical Women”—and it made great play with “crash of windows,” “quivering homes,” “night attire,” “darkened streets”; which the casual use of names such a s Wanganui, Feihling, Masterton, Palmerston —all within a certain limited area—might have convinced Australian readers —who know nothing of New Zealand topography— that the whole country was facing a universal cataclysm which it could hardly hope to survive. I am glad to say that there was one striking instance of immunity from this epidemic of journalistic hysteria. Tho “Sydney Morning Herald” began its account of this earthquake with reference to a “tremendous disturbance” recorded here at the Riverview Observatory. A DIFFERENT NOTE. But it relegated the New Zealand “quake” to quite a subordinate place, gave it only a small double heading, including the succinct statement, “Little Damage Done,” and was careful to inform its readers that “there were no casualties.” If only the whole of colonial journalism were conducted on the lines of dignity and self-control so carefully observed by the “Sydney Morning Herald” our newspapers would deserve a better reputation than they now enjoy. But we have to deal, not with ideal conditions, but with things as they are; and I was very glad to see that the New Zealand Trade Commissioner has received a. cable message from tho New Zealand Government, which mentions that the earthquake has caused only “a certain amount of minor damage,” and that nobody has been injured. But though Mr Schmitt sent this message to the “Sun” in time for publication in its first afternoon edition, the “Sun” still stuck to its “scareheads” and tucked the New Zealand cable away in comparatively small type at the very end of its “earthquake story.” It might be well for the New Zealand authorities to repeat the message with more detail ajid greater emphasis than before.