RAVAGES OF THE EARTHQUAKE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20811, 2 September 1929, Page 8

RAVAGES OF THE EARTHQUAKE.

COLOSSAL EARTH MOVEMENTS.. FACE OF THE COUNTRY CHANGED. (Per United Press Association.) WESTPORT, August 31. A representative of the Westport' News, who has just visited Lyell, has come back with the- impression that hothing that hag as yet appeared in the Illustrated .press, or that has been Written, has adequately described .the Icollosal earth movements of the'great, of June 17 last. “ Mention has. been made of the road (which dropped 14 feet,” he said.' “-That is nothing. In one place the road has moved out 25 feet and dropped 60 feet, carrying, with it all the telegraph posts; which arej still standing in line ‘ alongside ■' the dropped piece• of road. ' 4 In another place a hill has been' bodily moved out on to the road, but 'it is the rock;; movements that invite special notice. ; Pictures given of . the landslides have conveyed the impression that the surfape was opened up oh the spurs and-mountain sides as if with a great razor. There,is more than that, for the rock is rent and torn and has descended" the hillsides in; rivers of rock, sonic portions of which are of immense,.size.”. , , Beyond Lyell, . which was " not visited , by the 'Newa representative,. isA'according to the account of a; roadman, a landslide 60 chains 1117 width.' Around the : once famous township of Lyell ’ this hillsides arc broken and torn and the faces 1 of the spurs shattered. 1 ~ ; Mr C. F. Schadick, county engineer, •who has been through the Lyell and Karapaea districts, hr jugs'back a similar 'story regarding", the earth mbvemeflts. They fire colossal, he.stated. Nothing he has yet seen has given anything like an adequate description of the immense eruptive forces that were at work. It is suggested-that, with a view to giving the public elsewhere some idea of this great earth movement the shipping - companies should/airange for an excursion from Wellington ..to Westport, the Railways Department . doing. likewise- from Christchurch to Inangahua Junction, where-the excursionists could be taken as, far as Arnolds, a distance ' of,.between ' gix and , seven miles, and they could then walk on .to Lyell. What they would see, would be a revelation to them. Possibly some would prefer to come via Nelson , and; Murchison'by the ’ new Maruia route down through Reefton to Inangahua, aind thence proceed, to Lyell.. ; / . 1