CARE OF CHILDREN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20791, 6 February 1931, Page 14

CARE OF CHILDREN.

HOME ON HOTUIHI ISLAND.

TOTAL OF 100 TO BE SENT.

SUNSHINE ASSOCIATION CAMP.

GIFTS OF FOOD DESIRED. A party of about 100 children from the earthquake area will arrive at Auckland within the next few days and will be taken to Motuihi Island,, where they will be cared for at the camp of the Community Sunshine Association. These children will not only be cared for at tlio camp, but their education will be carried on, as teachers are being provided.

On the day of the earthquake it was realised that there would be many children who would need care and attention, and without delay the committee of the Sunshine Association offered to reopen its camp for the reception of young refugees. This offer has now been accepted by the Minister of Health, Hon. A. J. Stallworthy, who telegraphed last evening that 70 children and seven teachers would be despatched to Auckland as soon as possible, followed by a further party of 30 children and four teachers, all for accommodation at Motuihi.

It was indicated by a message received from Napier last evening that these children are inmates of the Napier Children's Home and that the teachers accompanying them are members of the staff of the home

The committee of the Sunshine Association has notified the Minister that arrangements for the reception of the children are complete and that on arrival the children will' be provided with a meal and will afterwards be taken to the camp at Motuihi.

Members of the committee stated last evening that they would be compelled to appeal to the public to assist them with gifts of food. They would be pleased to receive donations of groceries, milk, bread, meat and other commodities as well as supplies of coal. Offers of such gifts would be received at the association's depot in Auckland. A meeting of the ladies' auxiliary committee will be held this morning to allot duties in connection with the reception of the children.

ORIGIN OF THE SHOCK.

SEISMOLOGICAL RECORDS.

CENTRE OF DISTURBANCE.

AT SEA TO EAST OF NAPIER.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. ]

WELLINGTON. Thursday.

The nature and origin of the shock are at present a matter of speculation, and will remain so until-.the seismological records, obtained at the Dominion Observatory and the Vellum Observatory, Kelburn, and elsewhere, are compared and analysed, and until 'geological experts can make a reconnaissance of the affected area.

The earthquake was felt strongly enough in Wellington to' put of action some of the seismological instruments at the observatory, bub those dismantled were quickly restored to working order, and others continued recording in the meantime. A preliminary investigation of the records made shows that the oscillations connected with the main shock continued for a full five hours. There were dozens of after-shocks, and these still continue. Some of these aftershocks have been of considerable magnitude, but, generally speaking, they are not as big as the after-shocks following the Murchison earthquake. • The measurement of the records points to a possibility of the centre of the disturbance being a little to the east of Napier, out to sea. The raising of a block of the ocean bed would account for the reported shallowing of the harbour, Hut, wherever the centre is, it is very close to Napier. The latest geological survey maps, showing fault lines—along which earthquakes may be expected to occur*—indicate that one such fault, classed as dormant or extinct, lies just to the west of Hastings and Napier. Slightly further west still is a marked action fault. The whole of the country, in fact, from the southern extremity of the North Island, right along the East Coast, is marked with a series of faults running parallel with the mountain range 3. If any of these has been responsible for the disaster it cannot as yet be ascertained.

THE MAJOR FAULT ZONE.

NOTED GEOLOGIST'S REVIEW.

[BY TELEGRArH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.] DUNEDIN, Thursday.

Professor Park, the veteran geologist, states that the major fault runs direct from the north of Gisborne to Wellington, Marlborough and North Canterbury. It forms a wide trough and, tha land being fertile, intensive settlement and the main communication lines have naturally followed the fault course. The important towns on this fault zone are Gisborne, Wairoa, Napier, Hastings. Waipawa, Waipukurau, Dannevirke. Woodville, Pahiatua, Eketahuna, Masterton, Carterton, Hutt, Wellington, Kaikoura and . Christchurch.

Professor Park comments that it is singular that along the whole length of this fault there is no evidence of recent late tertiary volcanicity, whereas the second great fault, from White Island to Murchison, has, from Ruapehu northwards; been the scene of intense volcanic activity from the late tertiary to the present time. The Tarawera ana Murchison earthquakes originated on this fracture. The present shock owes its origin to tho adjustment of the crustal stresses along a fracture that has been intermittently active for hundreds of centuries.