The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREER AUCKLAND SATURDAY, JULY 26, 1930 THE PERIL OF EARTHQUAKES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1034, 26 July 1930, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREER AUCKLAND SATURDAY, JULY 26, 1930 THE PERIL OF EARTHQUAKES

THERE are worse shocks than the possible defeat of the All Blacks by Great Britain’s representative Rugby team at Eden Park this afternoon, or even the Forbes Budget with its demand for twenty million pounds in taxation from a people that is much too soft to its politicians. Italy, for example, has just experienced one in the destructive nature of a violent earthquake. New Zealanders might well pause for a moment at least in the process of their gaiety and grouching to meditate on Italian experience and sympathise with a stricken nation. This country is on the crust of the earth that is not always still. It knows the quaking terror that comes so suddenly with a seismic disturbance. It has reason to think seriously without panic about the jarring experiences of other countries also perched precariously on an unstable ridge. Good fortune, rather than lack of earthfaults, has kept the Dominion relatively happy in freedom from quick disaster. Ten provinces of Southern Italy with Naples as their centre and alluring capital—the glory of the bay and its sentinel volcano is worth the risk of earthquake peril in darkness—have been ravaged by upheavals and tremblings of their capricious foundations. The first horror was followed by tidal waves, a hurricane and a heat wave. It is not surprising that even many intelligent people, shaken ruthlessly by a force beyond the control of the most forceful Fascist of them all, thought that the end of a mad world had come at last and with merciless severity. The story of the disaster is more vivid and terrifying than an imaginary picture of a maniacal revolutionist’s dream of devastating revolt. King’s palaces, historic structures, and thousands of slum homes which mar the natural beauty of Southern Italy were brought down to rubble and dust by a subterranean Samson. Several thousand persons were killed, thousands more injured, a million unhappy folk were beref\ of their homes in the shattered area. ■ It is a sombre time for sympathy and kind thoughts. A full record of the havoc wrought in a few minutes has not yet been compiled by the Italian authorities, but enough already has been revealed to show that the people of Italy have cause for some gratitude. Bad though the disaster lias been in nature and extent, it still is relatively light for a ’quake-ridden country. Near the Italian volcanoes there have been more calamitous earthquakes within comparatively recent times. The Neapolitan earthquake of 1857 took over 12,000 lives, and wrecked a city, neighbouring towns, and many villages among vineyards in rich volcanic soil. Twenty-two years ago, still remembered vividly and with anguish by those who suffered grievously, the Messina upheaval cost 77,000 lives, to say nothing about the incalculable damage that was done as quickly as a lightning stroke. The greater part of Southern Italy unfortunately is set on the edge of a deep basin in the western Mediterranean, and is subjected frequently, but not always destructively, to earth vibrations from sudden fractures. Flanking the depression over a large area there are several volcanoes, active and extinct. On occasions Vesuvius. Stromboli and Etna are menacingly active; sometimes they become violent in eruption, more frequently, however, these volcanoes merely are picturesque lures for tourists and passing voyagers. Indeed, it would seem that a smoking volcano on a pleasant countryside is considered to he an enviable asset until it vents its wrath upon its land and the people. There are many queer features of allurement in this queer world. Do the inhabitants of volcanic and earthquaky countries live in constant terror? Not at all; generally they are the happiest of people because their faith is staunch in the shadow of peril. v One of the most remarkable traits of humankind is the courage with which men clear away the debris of a terrible earthquake and rebuild even greater cities upon the sites of disaster. Japan, for instance, is a land of earthquakes with memorable records of almost unparalleled destruction in modern times. Some years ago Tokyo was destroyed; today Tokyo is a strong, beautiful city, perfectly confident in the stability of its new architecture. So with San Francisco which, in 1906, was devastated by an earthquake and a subsequent, fire. The fine American city on the tilted Californian slope rears its tall head toward a friendly sky, forgetful that its feet still are placed on unfriendly ground. Man may not yet claim that he has conquered earthquakes, but he certainly has mastered his ancestor’s fear of them. He builds protectively against a possible shock and hopes to escape havoc. Then there is the great advance in the science of seismology. One Italian seismologist alone has tabulated the records of over 170,000 earthquakes. Within seven recent years 8,000 shocks have been recorded in Japan to whose experts the world owes much for its acquired knowledge of earthquakes. The seismograph enables recorders to determine the time, character and the place of origin, even though the earthquake has occurred thousands of miles distant from the recording instrument. And there are earthquake prophets—good ones, too, and certainly no more erratic than the highly-paid observers who predict weather. Meanwhile, here in Auckland, let us all he grateful that, if a seismic Government can make the taxpayer quake, the ground is' solid and of a generous nature. Better to forget financial and political troubles and, as one earthquake country to another, sympathise deeply with the Italian nation.