Lake County Press. PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY Arrowtown: April 26, 1906. THE AMERICAN DISASTER.

Lake County Press, Issue 2115, 26 April 1906, Page 4

Lake County Press. PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY

A rrowtown: April 26, 1906. THE AMERICAN DISASTER.

The. Irnthat'* i/itH :i tlur i;it(,rd, mid /•:< jin'.

Tin; world stands aghast at the awful news reported from Ban Francisco, Li another column details are given of the terrible disaster, occasioned by an eartbqnato, that has occurred in the American city. In lime of war loss of life is to be reckoned with and the combatants anticipate the possibilities of being shot down ; not so when earth’s forces aur.-rt themselves. Thousands in an instant are hurled into eternity, while those spared are loft destitute and homeless. The appalling nature of the disaster can scarcely ho imagined, while to estimate, or attempt to estimate the damage, is absorb. It is as safe to call it a million millions as a hundred millions. Bitch tonne arc meaningless, except that they indicate the monetary losses are great beyond compare. As to the causes of earthquakes, many opinions have been obtained by the leading dailies. Mr Hogben, the special New Zealand authority on this fiiibjoct, states that the earthquakes in Ban Francisco were, in his opinion, due to readjustments of

tlui earth’s crust below the Rockies and parallel ranges, including the ranges in the ocean bed to the west. They belonged to the same system as those in Mexico. Mr llogbeu does not believe that volcanoes and earthqnakces are duo to the same cause. They were quite distinct. Whore a volcano eruption took place there were of course earthquakes, but they were purely local, fu the seismic region on which Ban Francisco is situated, he said it was evident big adjustments were going on, and there would almost certainly be recuring shocks. Where there were big mountain ranges earthquakes would occur. In Japan and the Hymalayas, for instance, disturbances wore and would bo frequent. Writing generally of seismic disturbances, the Post says : Earthquakes have been recorded with more than 2,000 years ; comparatively few in the past, though probably more frequently than at present, for so much of the earth was then unknown to histories. The gigantic figures in some of the earlier records, if they arc not over-stated, would seem to imply that these phenomena are loss destructive) than of old. The Lisbon earthquake of 17 do—perhaps the most celebrated of all —was far from being the greatest. Even in modern times the less of life was estimated at dO,OOO and a little over two centuries earlier {1 dill) the same city lost 30,000 lives in a like visitation. Constantinople lias several times been overthrown, with great loss of life. On the first recorded occasion—a.d. 513 —the earthquake was felt throughout the known world, and the sixtii century was marked by many terrible disasters of the kind. In 712 a great earthquake with incalculable loss ol life, was felt throughout Asia, Syria, and .Palestine ; in 1268 an earthquake in Cilicia destroyed 60,000 lives ; in 1156, 10,000 perished at .Naples, in Schamaki, a Black Boa port near Baku, in 1667, in a succession of shocks, lasting three months, 60,000 are reported to have lost their lives; in Sicily, in 1603, 100,000 perished in an earthquake, including the entire population ol Catania estimated at 18,000. China and Japan both densely populated, have long records of destruction. Inn it was not until the eighteenth century that Europe knew much of them. In 1708 at Yeddu Japan lost 200,000 lives ; and twenty-eight years later a terrible shock in China destroyed in Pekin alone 100,000 lives. Half of Cairo was overthrown in 1751, and 10,000 lives lost; and in 1797 an equal number perished in one second of time in an earthquake which extended from Santa Fe to Panama.” The history of San Francisco is sufficient to make it certain that, great as the present calamity is, the city will recuperate with astonishing rapidity. Since its establishment, San Francisco has been periodically demolished, but it has survived losses by great lires, earthquakes, real estate panics, mining stock gambling riots, Chinese agitation, etc., and progressed with remarkable speed, iu 1819 all the principal buildings wore cleared out of sight, at a total loss of fully a million dollars. And the very next year there were successive lires on 21th May and 11th June the merchants losing live million dollars. The fourth and most disastrous lire swept the city on the 1 llh May, 1851, demolishing the tine buildings that had replaced '.hose destroyed tiro previous year. The entire business portion of the city was reduced to ashes, and a month later the same ground was Uru-swopt for thu fifth time. As in the present instance, properly of immense value was lying exposed in the streets. Thu citizens organised into a patrol, and soon extended their jurisdiction to hanging murderers. In those early days the fire scarcely unchecked the growth of the city. Shanties and wooden buildings wore replaced by larger brick structures, and wo may expect in a wonderfully short time the city which to-day is the scone of ruin and disaster almost indiscribablo, will ho greater than ever. No trace of the awful calamity will ho visible. The latest advices from Frisco state that the lire is under control, but it is at this period that details of the terrible sufferings and privations of the people begin to flow in. Fortunately liberal aid for sufferers is being rapidly provided, and already something like .£2,000,009 has been raised. World-wide sympathy prevails, and relief organisations have been started in many countries. Mr Buddon, on behalf of the Colony through Ins Excellency the Governor, has offered to President Roosevelt the sum of £5,000 towards the relief fund that is being raised for the sufferers and victims by the earthquake and fro Wo congratulate the Premier on this practical expression of sympathy with our cousins across thu sea.