PROVINCE SHAKEN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23281, 25 February 1939, Page 12

PROVINCE SHAKEN

EARTHQUAKE ALARM SHOCK IN HAWKE'S BAY; CROCKERY BREAKAGES NO SERIOUS DAMAGE DONE [by telegraph—OWN correspondent] Hastings, Friday Alarm was felt in some cases, but little damage was done when an earthquake was felt throughout Hawke'g Bay at 11.20 this morning. The disturbance was most severe in Southern Hawke's Bay coastal areas, but was not as bad as the heavy shocks experienced in December. Homesteads along the coast suffered fairly heavily so far as crockery was concerned, but no instances of chimneys falling have been reported. The shock began at exactly 11.20 a.m. at Porangahau and lasted for an unusually long time. It was, however, as one observer noted, "a good hard shake and then it was over." There was no final jolt and no swaying afterward. It appeared to come from north-east to south-west. In Hastings and Napier the earthquake was of a steady swaying nature, sufficiently severe to set lights, pictures and other suspended objects swinging, and temporarily to unsettle many people, fortunately, there was no jolt accompanying it, and it was not severe enough to cause any damage. A Wairoa settler reported that a short, but fairly sharp, earthquake was felt in that district about two o'clock this morning, and was followed by several other minor earth movements within a comparatively brief period. MANAWATU DISTEICT TWO SLIGHT TREMORS FELT [by TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] PALMERSTON NOKTH. Friday Two slight earth tremors were felt in the Manawatu district at about 11.23, this morning.