EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20251, 10 May 1929, Page 12

EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE.

CONDITIONS AT FEILDING. EXPERIENCES OF RESIDENTS. REPAIRING THE BUILDINGS. [by telegraph.—own correspondent.] PALMERSTON NORTH. Thursday. A further survey of the damage at Feilding by the earthquake yesterday morning shows the varying intensity of the shock-. Tingey's shop front suffered badly. One large plate glass window came out bodily and another is cracked so badly that it will have to be renewed. Nearly all the fanlights above the windows were shattered and inside the shop damage was caused to stock. Only a few feet across the road, however, in Allen's store, which contains pyramids of neatly stacked crockery and glassware, the loss is assessed at only 3s 6d. Some residents were awakened by the noise of jam and pickle bottles, crockery and ornaments crashing to the floors. In other houses, however, the awakened sleepers merely lay in a slate of nervous apprehension and heard nothing except the protesting creaks of the timber of the houses.

Brick buildings naturally suffered worst. Several ominous cracks aro noticeable in different structures in the town. In many parts of the borough chimneys have been left in a dangerous state and yesterday the borough inspector, Mr. C. Pearson, made a hurried inspection, giving instructions for the demolition of the most dangerous ones. At Waituna the residents had a nervewracking experience. Tho shock seemed to have gained in intensity by the hilly, precipitous nature of the country. Ihere is hardly a chimney intact for miles, and losses of crockery are exceptionally heavy. Tho experience of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Perry and family at Arapata will long remain in their memories. Awakened by the noise of the earthquake, they hurriedly left their beds on a balcony just as the chimney above them came down and bricks poured in an avalanche over the balcony. Mr. and Mrs. R. Northcott had an unenviable experience. The weight of bricks from a demolished chimney proved too much for the roof and crashed through into the bedroom. A fatality was narrowly averted at Stormy Point, Rewa Road, at the residence of Mr. P. Batchelor. The chimney crashed, and in its fall carried with it the wall of a room in which a child was sleeping just as the thoroughly alarmed parent removed the child. Mr. and Mrs. Harre, of Rewa, also had a nervewracking experience, their house being lifted bodily from the piles, while the chimneys collapsed. Deep cracks and fissures have appeared on the hillsides and faces of tho cliffs, and it seems fairly certain that tho first soaking the countryside gets will result in the contour of some hills being altered.

The Kimbolton district in general missed the brunt of the shake, but not a few residences to-day are minus their chimneys, and crockery supplies are also depleted. At Mr. H. B. Doyley's residence on the Kimbolton-Rangiwahia Road all the chimneys are down and the crockery smashed, while the house is considerably shaken. Mr. W. Scott s residence on Forest Road, Kimbolton, has all the chimneys cracked. This morning in Feilding every carpenter, bricklayer and glazier who could be obtained was busy repairing the damaged buildings. REPAIRS AT HUNTERVILLE. BRICKLAYERS IN DEMAND. ANOTHER SLIGHT TREMOR. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] WANGANUI, Thursday. Gradually order is arising out of the state of chaos into which the township of Hunterville was thrown by the earthquake yesterday morning. The greatast need at" present is for the man who can do bricklaying, but the town's deficiency in this respect has been made up to some extent by the arrival of four workmen who are doing yeoman service. A start has been made in effecting urgent icpairs to residences. There are altogether 100 chimneys in the town and district from which the tops were cut off, while a numbor in the country districts adjacent have shared a similar fate, and the brick wall of a shop at the main intersection is regarded as unsafe, and will havo to bo pulled down if it does not fall of its own accord. At 10.3 a.m. to-day there was a slight tremor, A patrol ot the railway line in tho vicinity of Hunterville shortly after the earthquake revealed that rails were slight!.< out of adjustment about two miles north of the township. Thi limited express which passed over the section shortly afterwards was slowed down, but repairs were effected and all other railway traffic was able to proceed as usual.