A WELLINGTON EARTHQUAKE THIRTY YEARS AGO.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 820, 27 June 1879, Page 2

A WELLINGTON EARTHQUAKE THIRTY YEARS AGO.

A oorrbspokdent sends the following extract from a lecture on " New Zealand;" delivered reoently by^ W. Lee, Esq;., Member of the Geographical Society, m London, being the personal experince of the lecturer m New Zealand -some thirty years ago. After .telling his audience that ''atJthat time, the forests of New Zealand abounded with wild pig, oxen, and wild beasts*" he goes on to describe an earthquake which he deolares took place m Wellington, as follows :—■"...■ About 4 o olook m the morning I was aroused from my slumbers by a violent shaking of .the bed on which I lay . . . put my head over the Bide of -my bunk, and looking down into the room below, I could perceive that there was some motion. In a few seconds, down came the chimney with a crash. I was instantly dowu my ladder and outside the door, and was soon joined by my shivering and half-naked companions. I shall never forget the feeling of that moment as I gazed on those grand old mountains with all ' their magnificent forests rolling to and fro like drunkon men. My mind was completely crushed under the sense of my own nothingness, and I lay like a worm on the ground, stunned by the awful display of the omnipotence at Him who thus could cause the foundations of the earth to shake. The tremulous motion of the earth continued for twenty-four hours. It' was sometimes so slight as to need care to discover it ; for now and then was heard underground a growl like a roar of thunder, and then the motion would be so violent as to compel us to lie dowu on the ground, or hold by some tree or post. Presently, we took refuge m bur schooner. Strange to say, we felt the shocks as much on the sea as on the land. The force of the earthquake did not seem to be deadened by the water, and our little vessel trembled like a leaf. At Wellington we found the whole town m confusion. One wall of the brick barracks had been shaken down, and several houses m the place were more or less dilapiated, while there was hardly a chimney standing. A solemn fast had been proclaimed, and the people were as sober as if first escaped I from some fearful fire The Colonial Government learned that the country would be depopulated, and they laid an . embargo on the vessels m port. But tho terrors of the earthquake exceeded the terrors of the the law, and a number of men chartered a vessel to carry them from a place apparently doomed to destruction. For several weeks scarcely a day passed without an occasional shock. We retuaned to our home, and took up our dwelling m one of the cowsheds, the walls of which, being composed of large piles of timber driven into the ground, could not be shaken down. We soon became accustomed to this awful phenomenon, and then at length began to turn the shocks to account m the duties of our business. Thus, m falling timber it was our custom to cut about one-third away into the tree on the side we wanted it to fall, and then with axes chop away the wood above this slit, till we had made a large sloping gash, called a scar; the support being to a great extent withdrawn from this side, we had put to saw m a litle way behind, when it would come tumbling down at the first shock of an earthquake. I have seen as many 'as fifty or sixty giants of the forest standing thus, half sawn through, waiting to be shaken down ; and exhibited one of the moat extiaordinary instances of the force, of habit m weakening impressions of terror that I have ever experienced,"