THE KINGSTON EARTHQUAKE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVI, Issue 14310, 2 March 1907, Page 4

THE KINGSTON EARTHQUAKE.

MR HENNIKER HEATON’S NARRATIVE. v ‘ [From Our Correspondent.] LONDON, January 18. Details of the great earthquake at Kingston, Jamaica, would doubtless reach New Zealand by the last San Francisco mail, but the following personal narrative by Mr Honuiker Heaton, M.P., may bo new. Mr Heaton was a member of Sir Alfred Jones’s party visiting Jamaica at the time of the earthquake. In a cablegram to the “Times” to-day he says:— After the opening ceremony of the Agricultural'Conference Sir Alexander Swettonham invited ten of us to lunch with him at the Jamaica Club, including Sir James Fergusson, who had arrived the day before- and gave us an interesting account of the work on the Panama. Canal. An hour afterwards Sir James was buried amid tone of brick and stone. The first fear as to his fat© was duo to the fact that lie had not returned during the night to Government House, where he was staying, and at five in the morning the Governor came on board Huy Port Kingston, the vessel that brought Sir Alfred Jones’s party out, and in which Sir James Fergusson had taken his passage home, to inquire for his guest. Aft’er lunch I left the club and went with Mr Cork, a member of the Council and a leading planter, to visit the Post Office, and was returning from there when the earthquake took place. The street was a moderatesized one, and the moment the ground began, to quake thousands of people rushed and jumped into the street from the houses. A huge building fell across the street a yard before us. On our loft la. third building fell into the street. Then followed absolute darkness. Great clouds of dust, mortar and debris filled the air for five minutes', and when Hie light was restored my companion and 1 found ourselves black with dust and dirt, like negroes. It was a miraculous escape. ! “The scene that followed baffles description. Women were embracing their little children. Others were on their knees, praying loudly and with'the i most intense feeling to God, with such words as “ Lord, have mercy on us,” “ God, have mercy on us,” “ Christ, have mercy on us and save us.” Others were fainting, and others running wildly looking for their loved ones. II e climbed over the fallen loads of bricks and mortar, and we got back to the club. It was in ruins, with the roof collapsed, and the room where wo had been dining was filled with tons of brick from the fallen walls. A young fellow, hatless and ccatlefis. and with a handkerchief round his head, addre-saed me in the street outside the club for several minutes. At length something peculiar struck .mo, and 1 asked if ho was Gerald Loder, my friend for many years in the House of Commons and an ex-M.P. for Brighton. He said ,yes. Ho was wilting in the reading-room on the second floor of the club when the roof fell in. Ho bad been pinned to the floor hy the roof, but by freeing himself from his coat he escaped; on to the parapet and descended by a ladder into the street. The most awful sight was poor Mr Bradley, a member of the club, lying dead under the great fallen pillars of Hie building. At Constant Spring Hotel I found my bedroom shattered and the roof cleared off it. I found numbers of ladies who had been taking afternoon rest in their rooms, on the lawn with blankets and bed things around them. THE HAVOC IN KINGSTON. That slept on the lawn of the hotel, and during the Jong hours between sunset and sunrise we felt at least three earthquake shocks. The 1 blaze of the paging fire oyer the city

was plainly visible. At dawn I got coffee, and then drove into Kingston, six miles. All along the road encampments off families wore seen outside their houses. In Kingston I drove for many miles through the streets. At least 98 out of every 100 houses are in ruins or damaged beyond repair. Tills I say from personal observation, yet nine-tenths of the houses were old, and many of them ought to have been destroyed long ago. On arrival on board our good: steamship, great joy was expressed to find. Sir Alfred Jones, notwithstanding his miraculous escape, giving orders clearly, coolly and forcibly to bus secretaries to meet tho troubles. “Let a hundred light wooden structures he erected at Constant Spring Hotel and another hundred at .Myrtle- Bank Hotel,” was tho first order. Then followed instructions for cooking for the poor-people, then a telegram congratulating his manager and staff and Constant Spring on their extraordinary efforts to provide for the two hundred houseless guests. I asked Sir Alfred Jones what was the future of Jamaica. “You can take my word for it that this calamity will not interfere in the least with tho progress and prosperity of tho island. Only tho depot has been injured, the produce ami products of the country have not been interfered with in the slightest degree. The houses that have been destroyed are mostly old, and deserve to be destroyed. The prosperity of tlie island, I repeat, lias not been affected,” he said in the, cheeriest manner, and we believe him.