EARTHQUAKE RISKS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21844, 5 July 1934, Page 16

EARTHQUAKE RISKS

ROYAL SOCIETY VIEW " DIFFICULT TO ACCEPT" The view of the Royal Society of New Zealand concerning earthquake risks in the Dominion is not shared by the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. In a preface to a memorandum urging that the Building Construction Bill be passed into law without delay, the president of the society, Professor R. Speight, expressed the opinion that, with the possible exception of the Auckland Peninsiila, north, say, of Helensville, it was quite unsafe to consider any part of New Zealand as immune from the destructive Shocks. ' The following; letter has been sent to Professor Speight by Mr- A. G. Lunn, president.- of the chamber:— "We find it very difficult to accept your view that the risk of earthquake damage in Auckland is similar to that in the regions close to Cook Strait, more especially as in Auckland and in Dunedin the experience of locally originating earthquakes is nil, such shocks as have been experienced being reverberations from seismic disturbances centring elsewhere in New Zealand. "Moreover, it is difficult to know why a line should be drawn in the vicinity of Helensville, because there is just as much evidence in the vicinity of Whangarei of past volcanic action as there is in the vicinity of Auckland. "Residents of Auckland find it very difficult to accept the view that Auckland must take similar precautions to the other parts of New Zealand. Your communication has not shaken members of the executive from their view that it is sufficient for the Government to lay down general principles regarding erection of earthquake-proof buildings, leaving each locality to work them out in detail with particular reference to the local earthquake risk as indicated by past experience." The light in which insuranco companies view the position would appear to be indicated by the fact that higher rates for insurance against earthquake obtain in some parts of New Zealand than in others. Rates in areas north of a line drawn some miles south of Auckland, and south of a line drawn north of Dunedin, are not so high as in the intervening area.