THE CHEVIOT EARTHQUAKE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11822, 27 November 1901, Page 6

THE CHEVIOT EARTHQUAKE.

FURTHER SHOCKS.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Wellington, Tuesday. The postmaster at Cheviot telegraphs today"Two shocks were felt last night at half-past eight and a-quarter to ten. The former was of a double nature, but both were very slight."

nOW EARTHQUAKES AFFECT THE NERVES. The special correspondent of the Christchurcb Press, writing on November 22, says: —" The jumps" is what affects most of the more highly-strung folk. They have got into such a state that they are apprehensive of every quiver, and start at every tremor. It is not easy for people living comfortably in Christchurch to understand ' the effect of a week of earthquakes, consequently thoy are inclined to discredit the stories about the last seven days. Let the doubters ask any settler who has undergone tho ordeal, whose horn© has been desolated, whose family are prostrated, and whoso nerves have been unbraced, what ho thinks of his experiences, whether they have been accurately described in the newspapers, end if the havoc the earthquake has wrought has been overestimated, and he will get an emphatic reply that will convince him, if he is anxious to be convinced. Any 24 hours of the last seven days at Cheviot would have given the sceptics a new idea of things, and put an end to their incredulity. Personally I have a wholesome respect for the forces of nature, and Cheviot people don't hold them in any sort of contempt. They have had an awful week. I was not there on Saturday when the first convulsion overthrew their houses and rent their country, but the strain of that dreadful day could be read in their anxious faces next morning, and the week which followed has left many of them listless and unnerved. The men haven't time to shave, and most of the women have not paid any large amount of attention to their toilets. The building most in request as a residence has been the gaol. There is a fooling of security about a gaol, probably. The Cheviot gaol consists of a single small room, and one can imagine a prisoner ot no herculean proportions walking off with it some night. Consequently not many people can occupy it at one time. The local newspaper proprieto. 1 and his wife were the lucky occupants on several occasions. But it is not easy to find much humour in Cheviot. On the contrary, people are getting irritable and short-tempered. Nor does it increase their amiability to be told by people who have never been there, and have not seen the damage that has been done, that the reports have been very much exaggerated, and that things are not as bad as they have been painted. Cheviot is quaking still. The Gehenna underground is not yet inactive. But, although the struggle appears to have weakened the forces below, whatever it be. people in Cheviot are not optimistic. They have discovered that it is not safe to speculate on the eccentricities of earthquakes nor prophesy peace for their smitten settlement. One lady who left " till the earthquakes were over" found this out to her own inconvenience yesterday. She spent two days in one of the country towns beyond the influence of the shocks, and then returned serenely home, imagining everything to be over, only to be startled out of her wits by an earthquake two hour? after her arrival. She took the first coach for Christchurch, vowing that she would leave this unhallowed spot to its own devices. "It is no country foi any decent person," she informed her neighbours, one of whom told me the story. Certainly it is uncanny to feel the earth vibrating beneath one's feet, and it takes a lot of getting used to. .