CONDITIONS AT WAIROA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21293, 21 September 1932, Page 11

CONDITIONS AT WAIROA

BFFICIAL INVESTIGATIONS

LINK OVER THE RIVER ■ i PONTOON BRIDGE WANTED THREE MORE SHOCKS OCCUR [by TELEGRAPH —PRESS association] , WAIROA, Tuesday 'A fairly quiet night was experienced til Wairoa, there, being two earthquake e'jiocks. Only ono jolt of a heavy nature vas felt- to-day. The engineer-in-chief of tho Public Works Department, Mr. F. W. Furkert, has arrived and was busily engaged throughout the day investigating the position. Mi'- Turner, borough surveyor, has also arrived to make a report. The Borough Council decided last evening! to replace chimneys and tanks immediately in necessitous cases. 'J ho Mayor, Mr. H. JL. llarker, received a telegram to-day from tho actingMinister of Public Works, Hon. C. J5. Macmillaji, stating that the request for a pontoon bridge is receiving immediate consideration. This advice is perhaps the most welcome message since the upheaval look place. The Government has authorised the deputy-chairman of the Unemployment Board, Mr. J. S. Jessep, to do what the {situation demanded, and he has helped the council considerably. Meat rations fur unemployed men have been ordered from Gisborue, where some 300 carcases of meat wero ' held for delivery when required.

At a conference between Mr. D. W. Coleman, M.P. for the district, and representatives of local bodies concerning problems facing the town, Mr. Brewster said tbatythe Wairoa Hospital Board was facing a critical financial position. After this earthquake last year, when extensive loss was . caused by damage to buildings and breakages, the board had corresponded with the Government, and, believing that it would receive assistance jr. meeting its outlay the board bad repaired the damage, but when accounts were submitted to the Government, tlhe only comfort given to the board wag the recommendation that it should pay £4.50 out of revenue and take a loan for this balance' of the £BSO expended. That was a hard course to take seeing that there was still money available in the Prime Minister's fund for earthquake relief. Mr. Brewster said that if the Government would reimburse the board for tb« cost of reparations after the 1931 earthquake, it would relieve the board of a serious burden.

An area not previously mentioned which has -suffered to a grfcat extent is the local cemetery. It is estimated that over a hundred headstones crashed. Ornaments and' railings lie everywhere, and the area'' gives the impression of having undergone qn artillery bombardment. The Opouiti River is still completely blocked by slips running from Mangapotki through the hills. At Clydebank the sheepyard gates were wrenched off the hinges and fences were flattened wholesale, giving the impression that a tprrific tornado had passed through this previously peaceful valley. St. Paul's Anglican Sunday School building is tilted over and broken away from another section of the church building, which is badly strained. St. Peter's Catholic Church is also strafried and tho convent building is also damaged. ' . The Harbour Board sheds aie badly damaged, also the _ wharves, including the ferro concrete wharf for the handling of wool. DAMAGE IN COUNTRY FARMERS' HEAVY LOSSES j MANY EXTENSIVE LANDSLIDES [by telegraph—l'BESS association] WAIROA, Tuesday An inspection of the Waiatai Valley and the hills to Clydebank disclosed extensive damage to the country. -Miles of fencing will have to be replaced, one farmer estimating that it will cost £SOO to replace the feuces on liis own property alone. Landslides have taken place at frequent intervals. At Pakarae station no fewer than 22 landslides occurred, one being estimated to cover 40 acres and numerous dead sheep were seen in the debris. Chains of boundary line have disappeared, in places leaving a razor-like edge. One slip containing thousands of tons ■ceased only three chains from a homestead in which a man and his wife and a number of young children were sleeping. Acres of land have heen churned up. The Clydebank side of the dividing range presented an appalling spectacle-. Three houses have been extensively damaged. , _ All indications are that the financial Joss in country settlements is extremely Jheavy. INSURANCE POLICIES MANY ALLOWED TO LAPSE While a considerable amount of the damage* done bv the earthquakes in Gisborne was covered by special earthquake insurance, many business men in the town had allowed their special protection to lapse recently. Quito a largo number ot policies were effected by insurance companies operating in the district, a er •> shocks of February, 1931, and the tola cover thus afforded 'against the risk of earthquake ran into many thousands o pounds. With the expiry of the 12-month period for. which these policies were issued, however, many holders fe i- ex pedient to drop the protection, the eartlrquake situation having eased af ei scare of last year. WHAT RECORDS SHOW NUMBER OF AFTER-SHOCKS SEISMOGRAPHS KEPT BUSY For more than two hours on Friday hiorning, from the time the fiist arrived from the earthquake in the noi , thp seismographs at the Dominion iset vntorv, Kelburn.- Wellington, were never properly at rest. Good records were obtained. particularly on the Gahtzin ver lcal motion instrument, although the rcro ' _ became faint and almost invisible w1 the motion was strongest and the point of light swinging across the who!, breadth of the sensitised paper, . mall black dots on the margins of the developed record showed the limits of tho wires.

swings. The Milne-Shaw instruments also prodnced good records, although the sea e >vas smaller and the waves mote ciow e It is thatr-records from other parts r f Xew Zerland where seismographs are in operation will be available for use in conjunction- with the Wellington for fixing with accuracy the centre of th disturbance. -An estimate of the posi ion f "f the centre was possible on 111 ay, however, from the records themselves. Mia the approximate direction from which tJio first, wave arrived. The origin was fixed in that way at a point about 30 mi es east of Waipiro Bay at the north of tne ®ast coast.