INTERESTING INTERVIEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2719, 25 April 1906, Page 29

INTERESTING INTERVIEWS.

iTROit OCR OWN CoKRESrCXEEXT.) WELLINGTON, April 19. There were many anxious inquirers at the Post and Telegraph Office here to-day-regarding the earthquake. Quite a number ■of ex-New Zealanders reside in San Francisco, and many .New Zea'anders have relatives or friends there. Latest bulletins were anxiously scanned as they were posted at the Telegraph Office and the newspaper offices. , This afternoon I called at thVFost Office to interview Mr IsbistetfT who has made many trips to "San Francisco in the capacity of mail agent. Mr Robertson. vthe chief clerk, produced a -book of photographs of ths principal buildings, and we were able to. see pictures of the principal ones destroyed. Quite recently, three or four months ago, Mr Isbister e&fd it had been decided to add another two storeys to the Palace Hotel. Other big hotels" are. the St. Francis Hotel, Fairmounfc Hotel, California Hotel, and the Occidental. The .first-named is understood to be the best hotel, the JFairmount and the Palace coming next in order. The St. Francis is a new hotel of 12 storeys, finished about 12 months ago. Mr Isbister thinks it will probably have suffered. All these big buildings are guaranteed earthquake and fire proof, but of courss it is only a question of magnitude of shock to bring clown any building in the world. From th-e news to hand it would seem as if the buildings on the south side -of Market street have suffered most. Market street, two chains, wide, is the main fchoioughfare. The Palace Hotel is in the ; next -block to the Call newspaper building, owned .by Mr Spreckels. The Opera House is in the > same block as the Call building, but fronts Mission street, instead of Market street. The Post . Office -is between Mission street and Howard street, three block? farther up. The Government has had no word from the New Zealand agent, Mr H. Stephenson Smith. He Jives down town in one of the old buildings, which may have suffered. In legard to the pioclamation of martial law, Mr I-bister says in such a place as San Francisco, where there are a j great many undesirables, martial law will | be an absolute necessity at such a time a3 this. Spm-e of the=.s characters, ho says, would not hesitate to fire buildings for the purpose of looting them. Mr Isbhter was j in San Francisco duiing an earthquake 12 j years ago. It occurred at 2 o'clock in the morning, and was sufficiently severe to bring down some of the cornices of buildings, and to cause people to rush out into the | streets, though he himself slept through it, and knew nothing about it till he read of it in the newspapers. One of the 'Frisco mail boats, with a number of New Zealand'-rs on board, arrived at San Francisco on Thursday last at 6 a.m. Amongst the pa.ecngers were Messrs W. H. A tack (of the Press Association), and Mr Fulton, C.E., and his wife and daughter. The Fultons had no d< finite plaus, though they intended to stay a few days in San Francisco. The probability, however, is that botli they and Mr Atack had proceeded on their journey before the earthquake occurred. Mr Frank Coffee, of Sydney, who is at present on a v:sit to W elluigton. and who was a resident of San Francisco for feveral years, sajs that San Franc : =co has f-owor skyscraping buildings than orher cities in the United States. It was only cf late that the many-storeyed edifice was being erected in California's capital. The Spreckols Building, which was one of the most conspicuous objects in San Francisco, contained 19 storeys, and wa^ absolutely up to date. The office, of ihe Call newspaper arc situated in the SprecV.Cjs Huildings, and near neighbour,, art- the large tonarate buildings of the Chronicle and the Examiner. The Palace Hotel, which is a'sc amongst the buildings destroyed, was the favourite place cf residence of Australians and New Zealanders, and was a fine structure. St. Francis Hotel comprises two buildingfc, each 13 storeys high, one of which has just been completed. There tire 325.000 people residing inside the city limits, and of th-cse net a few arc Italians, Portuguese, and Chino=e. The principal business thoroughfares cf the city are Market, Montgomery, Kearney. Post, SansonK 1 , and O'Farrcll streets, and off thefc street- ihe population i-, dense Baldwin's Hot"l, which was in Market street, was destroyed by fire. In its place a fir.a bmlclmg was erected for commercial purposes and it contained a restaurant that could accommodate 1500 Miners at or.c time. San Francisco has both the trollj and the cable systems for its I tramways*

1 llXlii XlJciV. JM.XV £ &±l\\jlj\J U \jc il uxiiau- . VIEWED. , In the course of an interview with a Pest reporter, the Key. P. W. 'Farjclougn, who devotes a large amount of time to > studying earthquakes and their contributing ; causes, said: — "It is well known that the l surface of the globe has its> regions of y greater and less stability. The chief sedsmio I regions are Japan and the Aleutians ~to the north, and the Philippines " to the 'south, ' Central- Atnerica, the Caribbean Sea, Chili i and Peru,- Greece, -Italy, and Asia v Minor, i and so forth. Between the Alaska-Aleutian. > system and ihe coast of California'f is a _ \ pretty stable region, and earthquakes ar4 ' infrequent. But from Cape Mendoeiuo southwards liability to shock increase. 'The ' cause of earthquakes," he stated, "'"is to r be sought %n the earth itself, not in the . heavenly bodies. The "moon and the suu [ may be „ slight contributors, mainly' as trigger pullers, to release "the strain arising from other causes. There is no other body » noar enough to have any effect. It may : be- taken as a rule that no body "external » to the earth can contribute to earthquakes unless it first contributes to tidal disturbance. The strain upon the. earth's crust arising from cooling and shrinking is beyond doub< the primal cause of shocks. But it shows itself in several different ways. Wheit great masses "of strata snap and ,: fracture, ■ creating a fault, one side at" ' least changes its elevation to the extent " sometimes of 10ft or more. ' Perhaps sometimes - there- Js a horizontal shi|t To! ■ several feet, and the line of fracture-, and displacement -can be "traced for'rseores of miles. Probably this*is the'most destructive class of shock. After the fault is once set - up there will probably be occasional readjustments, causing less terrible "shocks^ Violent shocks .are also associated with volcanoes, but these are local as compared with the class of shock just mentioned. It is . the area covered by , the shock-^-that is ■'its chief terror. Volcanic, shocks are seldom potent-., for mischief at a great distance. The shifting of great masses of silt* in the processes of centuries from the land to the sea bottom by the rivers is thought by' some- . to be a cause of strain on the earth's crust, theory, however, is nofc£ gaining ground. As to the tide?, as already said, they may act in favourable places a* triggei pullers, but long and careful observation, and the tabulation of numerous shocks, failed i-o prove any regular influence of th« moon." „ '

'"■'fCBE. GEOEOGICAI/ DIRECTOR INTER-? ', J{ ~ VIEWED.* , , i '"' } Dr Bell, director of the' Geological Survey, said:'-r" Perhaps' the, 'three mosfc- '" "dmpprtant" kinds of ' earthquakes are* those \ I winch are' .supposed . to be due to (1) Dis- _ ; (solution. ~" of* the underlying rocks of the j area-, affected^ (2) '/those which, arise/* from j.volcanio explosions; and (3) those which are due- to the corrugation of the earth's jcrusfc by terrestrial contraction. Terrestrial *«on traction," 'he went on to "is 'evidenced on the surface of the land area >of the globe by our lofty mountain ranges, 'rfwith their accompanying great faults, Sssures,' slips, etc.", etc., and beneath the oceans by the great depths which are so striking in the Pacific." "Earthquakes," he •aurthex stated, " are much more common in ; mountain ranges of comparatively recent (geological age than those of great antiquity, •because 'in -the latter the underlying crust 'siae ,had time to adjust itself to the conditions produced by their elevation. Earthquakes due to dissolution and .to volcanic explosions were as a rule local, though ■shose- of the latter description had been f Iknown -to exercise greater influences. Of course,", he said, "earthquakes may occur » anywhere, but those of far the "greatest ---magnitude and of mest far reaching effect are distinctly associated with lines of weakness in the earth's crust (produced by '- terrestrial contraction along mountain chains, etc), and it is this cause which very possibly gave rise to the disastrous earthquake of San Francisco, and to those of -sXisbon .-and .others." Asjced if he thought 'Vtfihe eruption *of Vesuvius had anything to ; I- do' .with the m San Francisco. ■ Dr ' Bell , said 'some authorities held that <; earthquakes" and yolcanoes were due to the l^saina causes;-- of that there was a remote - connection between them. He did not „' think, however, that the eruption of '-'.Vesuvius. had much to do with the disturb- . „ ance reported by cable, if it had anything . : at all. 'In the course of further conversa- ? fcion, Dr- Bell stated • that a line of seismic '. disturbance ran -right through New Zealand from south-west to north-west. Wellington is situated right on the line of weakness. I