New Plymouth Staggered by Severe Earthquake

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6552, 8 March 1928, Page 7

New Plymouth Staggered by Severe Earthquake

Wholesale Demolition of Chimney Tops Considerable Damage, Lite (Per Press Association.) NEW PLYMOUTH, Last Night, Damage amounting to many hundi’eds of pounds and general demolition of chimney tops resulted from a severe earthquake in New Plymouth at 6.50 a.m. to-day. The shake was the most violent experienced here for many years. It lasted about 30 seconds, working up to a climax and then suddenly dying away. Numbers of chimneys were destroyed, while many others are cracked, or have their tops displaced, necessitating partial demolition for repairs. In Eliot street four houses in a row had the tops of their chimneys dislodged. A tour of the borough discloses chimney pots nestling in all sorts of grotesque attitudes on the tops of ricketty piles of bricks which were once substantial chimney tops, and brick- , layers are beseiged with repair orders, sufficient to keep them busy for a long time. Shops and buildings have also suffered, many displays of chinaware having been dislodged, and an occasional plateglass window cracked. Shelves in many homes collapsed and articles in all positions were thrown on the floor. Several minor slips occurred, quantities of earth being dislodged from high banks. One house suffered more than most The whole top of one chimney snapped clean off near the roof and turnd 45 deg. round, settling down again on the rest of the chimney diagonally. Nearly all the piles were wrenched up out of the ground and settled again. The whole of the contents of the pantry were precipitated in a jumbled mass on the floor. Picture glass was shattered, books from book cases hurled right across the room, and other minor damage done. Inglewood, Waitara, Stratford, and Hawera all report having experienced the shake, though no damage occurred. In New Plymouth the shock was much greater on the seaward side of the suburb of Fitzroy, and in the locality near Pukekura Park.