SEVERE EARTHQUAKE

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 132, 5 June 1937, Page 2

SEVERE EARTHQUAKE

Origin About Twenty Miles From Hastings BELLS RING at TARADALE. From Our Own Con-Mnondent. HASTINGS, Juno 4. An earthquake shook in some respect comparable m intensity with tli secondary shocks which followed major 'quakes in 1931 shook Hastina ind Na P lo r a t about i. 5o o’clock thi| morning. In Hastings the shake was oi unusual severity, and beds and house ocked perceptibly, but Napier appear! lo have felt it much less severely »vfi*ch would suggest that it was eithel local to Hastings or had its origii lightly to the south of Hastings. Mi t. de Denne'e seismograph recording adicates that the disturbance probablj uad itd origin within about 20 miles ol Hastings, and the absence of reports from places farther south seems to con irm this belief. The duration was about 15 seconds, out the oscillations were too short foi heavy weights to acquire any momentum. This would account for the small amount of damage even among goods precariously placed in uispdaywindows. Both because of the hour and because the effect is more noticeabk tvhen one is lying down, the action was particularly alarming. At Taradale the chiming bells in th« memorial clock-tower were rung once. Buildings in Hastings suffered no structural damage, while buildings in course Df erection, which would not possess the same qualities of resistance as a finished block, also escaped unharmed, and there are no reports of anyone having suffered injury. At Waipukurau windows were rattled and those in bed were awakened, but the shock was not unduly severe. Reports from Porangahau state that it was not noticed there. The intensity was estimated by an expert to have been about five degrees on the Rossi-Forel scale, which means that it was of sufficient strength to be felt generally by everybody and to '‘ause disturbance of furniture, beds, doors and windows, and the ringing of some bells and creaking of floors. This scale, which is based purely on personal observations, is tho accepted method of indicating earthquake intensity. The shock began abruptly and ended in the same way. The movement was generally insufficient to dislodge arti* , clcs on shelves or to disarrange dis- | plays in shop windows. I Considerable consternation was caus!ed among stock and cattle, and horse* j galloped terrified around the paddocks* Residents near Cornwall Park report that the birds and animals there, tka peacocks particularly, created a great deal of noisew