THE MESSINA EARTHQUAKE

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 8 October 1913, Page 5

THE MESSINA EARTHQUAKE

INTERESTING DISCOVERIES

«T CABLE—PEESS ASSOCIATION—COPTEIGHT. LONDON, Oct. 7. The Daily Chronicle's Messina correspondent gives a description of the desolation. The Government a year ago voted £1000,000 to repair the ravages -of the great earthquake, but the contractors have not started, and the wharves were still sunken and the quay ■sides shattered. The parade was encumbered with rubbish due to a, 150 fet tidal wave. Nevertheless, the natural advantages were such that thetrade of the port was already greater than before the disaster. The cathedral, of which the Gemladen altar alone cost £160,000, is in ruins. Twenty-two pillars of the Temple of Neptune at 'Charybdis lie smashed. Pavement "nightwatchmen, armod with revolvers, guard the ruins, but many mosaics and statues have been plundered. Twentyseven million sterling of treasure has -already been recovered from the ruins, including £80,000 in cash from the premises of one small firm. Few Sicilians Invest in the bank. They prefer to ■conceal their hoards. Sackfuls of coins. Oriental bonds, exquisite jewels and pearls have been found. Thirty thousand bodies have not yet been recovered. Many of those disin"terred were shockingly carbonised. Other cases showed unmistakable signs that the victims had survived on chance food for days and weeks. Thirteen hundred bodies were buried in a tomb si hundred feet by thirty deep. '