The Earthquake in Review

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 970, 13 May 1930, Page 8

The Earthquake in Review

MURCHISON REFLECTIONS NOW that the greater part of a year has elapsed since the occurrence of the earthquake which damaged a portion of the South Island and stampeded correspondents of overseas newspapers into much wild scribbling? time is opportune to gain an unfevered perspective of the happening.

This is what The Sun said at the time of the earthquake: “Even in the extent of destruction the earthquake relatively was not calamitous, thouyh bad enough in all conscience for Is victims and sufferers. But it would be unpardonably wrong and exceptionally hurtful to the interests of New Zealanders at home and abroad to exaggerate its localised severity.” When wild statements gain currency the task of heading them off is difficult; sometimes impossible. News of the disaster to the "Shaky Isles” as retailed by headline writers in London so scared a contingent of lads who were to have sailed tor New Zealand at home and abroad to land scheme that the organisers were unable to muster the quota for July, 1929. ADVICE BORNE OUT Nine months have borne out Ths Sun’s counsel. Indeed so far from going down to history as a disaster of the first magnitude, the truth is that the June shake (apart from regrettable loss of 13 lives) proved for many parts of the West Coast to be rather the reverse. New Zealand had been assured that refugees who evacuated Murchison, which seems to have been the centre of the disturbance, had no intention whatever of returning. What is the position today? OLD ORDER OBTAINS Smoke from the chimneys which, incidentally, are now all of tin, like ships’ funnels, from the roof upward, ascends tranquilly in the evening air. Children run about the streets as before. At the corners, veterans of the flycatcher and the pan talk over the golden years. In point of fact not six people from the township proper have adhered to their terrorised determination. The absentees include the host and hostess of one of the two hotels, -who now live in England permanently. If the villagers had not come back, others would have walked in—that is all there was to it. Most of the havoc on farm lands occurred in the Maruia Valley, which runs parallel to the Matakitaki Valley, an area also rather severely damaged. In the Maruia, as in the Mataki, several people perished. The Maruia is still blocked by slips and seven families are not able to return, even if they so desired. In no mood to enter, again, the valley of death they have not asked that access be re-established. Instead they have petitioned the Government to find farms elsewhere and to compensate to the amount of the equity in the destroyed holding!',. The Public Works Department has, however, been ordered to unlock the valley, and this is being done. “The district is by no means down and out,” a resident who had given signal service in succouring refugees told a Sun representative. He added that the damage was not such as materially to affect the dairy output. Tho local butter factory—quite a modest one —he expected would show a reduction of approximately 25 per cent, for the season. The loss he attributed chiefly to the annihilation of

four farms in the lower Maruia and tile partial destruction of three. In what particular has the earthquake been of service to Murchison? For one thing, the county—and this applies also to the whole damaged area —will have roads which it could not have afforded without external assistance. No aspect of rehabilitation more impresses the investigator than the Public Works Department’s attention to the highways and the byways. THE HARASSED P.W.D. When people’s nerves were straining under the assault of the upheaval, hard things were said about the alleged tardiness of the department in getting on to the job. The critics in more deliberate moments now acknowledge that the department had not been at all slow in attacking a formidable task. At the first big shake, when slips came down in all directions, the P.W.D. transferred 300 men engaged on the Midland Railway construction in the vicinity to force a track to Murchison. “The department has done splendid work, and anybody who listens to contrary talk is unacquainted with the facts,” commented an observer. Not only will benefit accrue from improved roads, but the presence of several hundred workers on relief jobs and the railway means the spending of a considerable sum of money in the district. The P.W.D. is disbursing, monthly, approximately £IO,OOO in wages and stores, a large proportion of which circulates in Murchison and the Buller. To this, add between £15,000 and £20,000 handed to distressed persons, as allocations, by the Central Earthquake Relief Committee.' The department has still some months’ work ahead before the damage is repaired. A few- miles of road had been obliterated in sections varying from a chain to a mile or more, and in some parts new- formation lias had to be undertaken. The Maruia will not he open for some little time yet, and clearing of the Buller Gorge Road will require a further two months’ toil. This highway is now restored and improved as far as Red Jacket, 17 miles south of Murchison. There, a slip a mile in extent has barricaded the West Coast, compelling Nelson - Westport service cars to make a tremendous detour up the Matakitaki Valley and over the Maruia Saddle to Reefton, thence to Westport. The worst feature of the P.W.D.’s 14s allurement is that a large proportion of the Government’s Murchison and Buller relief teams has found it more profitable to sign up than to work their farms. A number of the youths are farmers’ sons. What they think of relief jobs is told by a prominent Murchison resident. His son was waiting to become an electrical apprentice, and casting about for occupation in the meantime. The youths on relief beckoned. “But I’m not strong enough for navvying work.” he demurred. His friends laughed. “You don’t need to work they said. C.T.C.W.