SEISMIC DISTURBANCES IN NEW ZEALAND.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 157, 19 June 1886, Page 7

SEISMIC DISTURBANCES IN NEW ZEALAND.

History of Former Shocks. Mr H. B. Sealt, of Parnell, writes as follows :— Sir, — I think that a brief account of former earthquake experience in this colony, since its settlement by Europeans, would interest many readers at this time, and perhaps tend to allay undue excitement and anxiety on the purt, of new colonists. I believe I may say that I have had personal experience of all the severe shocks which have been felt by the Europeans prior to the present outbreak in the Koto rua district, so that I am in a position to give a reliable account of those events. The iirst of these severe earthquakes occurred in the month of October, I&4S, and Wellington was about the centre of the convulsion. One Sunday evening in that month, I had retired to rest about midnight, my bedroom being on the upper iloor of a two-storied wooden building, on the beach at Wellington, when I felt a peculiar vibration w hicli 1 could not account for, but the hout=o being badly braced I thought it might be caused by some movement in the adjoining room. Very gradually this Aibratory motion increased in rapidity, and at the end of about thirty seconds it had become so violent as to leave no doubt as to its cause. I got out of bed to avoid proximit}' to a chimney, and, finding it difficult to stand upright, threw myselt on the floor to await the result. The entire shock seemed to last about, two minutes, but having no light I did not consult a watch, and in such alarming circumstances I think there is a natural tendency to exaggeration. The first shock abated much more suddenly than it commenced, but it was followed almost imme diatcly by another much less violent, and during the ■« hole of that night the earth seemed scarcely to return to a state of quiescence. There must have been hundreds of shocks of more or less violence, none of them nearly as severe as the first, but many which in subsequent years would have been notified by telegraph as a "sharp shock of earthquake." It was, I think, impossible to count them, as it was difficult to say when one ended and another commenced. It was a fearfully exciting night in Wellington, for even the first settlers, with their nine years' experience had felt nothing of the kind previously, only occasional slight tremors of the earth. On the Monday the force and frequency of the shocks very much abated, but the town was in great commotion. People were going about viewing the damages, comparing notes, and wondering what was to come next. The churches were opened for prayers, and thronged by large numbers. The building being almost all of wood, were not much damaged, but the chimneys were in many cases thiown down. There vas consinerable alai m lest the sea should rise and submerge all the lower part of the town, as has occurred in several cases on the coast of South America ; but nothing worse took place in the harbour than the vise and fall of the water for two or three feet, resulting from the bhaking to ■which such a large sheet of Mater was subjected. I had a wooden houfee nearty finished on the hill overlooking Hawkestone - street atid Thorndon Flat, and into this I removed w ith several friends for bettei secuiity. On the Tuesday we began to hope the worst was over ; but on the afternoon of xhat day the second great shock occurred, not so bad as the tirbt, and not followed by such a series ot minor shocks, but quite s-uflicient to renew the excitement for a time. After this we had comparative ie&t for a week, and people were busy re pan ing damages, and clearing away in the stores and public-houses the quantities of bottles and other goods which had been thrown dawn from the shelves in one geneial wreck. On the Fecond Tuesday afternoon, the weather being beautifully line, came great t>\v>< k number three. The band of the UoLii Regiment "n ati playing on Thorndon Flat, as was the custom there in line weather on stated days. I was standing in the hou^e on the hill, and had a good view over the flat and part of the harbour? This shock \\as of fchorter duration, but very sharp whilst it lasted. I could bee the tolid ground of Thorndon Flat (at that tune not very much built over) ri&ing and falling in lone undulations, "very much like the swell on a cilm &ea after a gale of wind. At some distance in fiont of me was a cottage, the brick chimney of which hud not been thrown down by the previous shocks. This chimney bwayed to and fro like a pendulum, and at each beat in this pendulum motion, it threw a few bricks to the right and left alternately until the chimney was pretty well demolished. I suppose clay had been used instead of mortar in building it. A hoi-se, in the enclosure around my house, galloped about in a state of extreme terror. Afterthis the earthquake ceased in a great measure for more than six years, although from time to time we got a warning to be cautious in the use of brick or stone as a building material. As we had no telegraph in those early days, and communication between the few ports of the colony was chiefly maintained by small coasters, it was not easy to ascertain the limits to which this series of earthquakes extended j but it was certainly felt as far up the coast as Wangarmi, across the Straits in the Wairau, and, in the north-easterlydireetion, throughout the Wairarapa Valley. There were, I think, at that time two deaths in Wellington from the fall of a mud wall, and four natives, if I remember right, were killed in Wairarapa. There was an amusing incident connected with this series of earthquakes, which was a petition got up by some of the business people at Wellington, and addres&ed to the British Parliament, asking for compensation for their looses, which I need not say they did not receive. The barque Sobraon, which happened to be in Wellington, was laid on for Sydney, and left with a number of passengers ; but the barque waa wrecked at the Heads, and these scared people had to return to Wellington and make the best of it. The next heavy earthquake occurred in the evening of the 22nd of January, 1835. This was Wellington Anniversary Day, and tney had been having the annual races at Burnham Water, many people being camped there in their tents, as the races were to be continued on the following day. This I believe to have been the heaviest shock of any that have occurred in the south ot this Island. I was travelling from Wellington to Hawke's Bay, on horseback, and had remained for the night at a station at Taumatiti, about thirty miles from Napier (which then consisted of three hotels, a htore, and a blacksmith's shop). About 9 p.m. the rumble wus heard, which was followed immediately by a very violent frhock. I and my companions were in the open air, passing from one house to another, and it was like walking the deck of a ship in a heavy sea. The trees, in an adjacent bußh, crushed violently together with a loud noise. But I had escaped the worst of this convulsion } as I found outon my

return * mouth or so later, for a Pailiser Bay the coast had been raised for miles, to the extent of seven or eight feet, and even Wellington harbour was shallowed two feot. There were some rocks in Palliser Bay, known as the Multa-muka rocks, which had been a great obstruction to travellers, especially to those driving stock, us they were sometimes delayed for days together, when a heavy sea was setting into tho bay, and breaking over the rocks. It was a nasty place to get past at all times, but had been slightly improved by blasting. When 1 returned after the earthquake, these rocks were high and dry, and the sea had receded several hundred yards, owing to the rise of the land, and you could ride round with ease at all states of the tide. In the Wairarapa the ground was broken in many places, one portion being raised, and the other depressed. In one place, the path was stopped by a barrier five feet high, from this cause. From January, 1855, to February, 1863, rather more than eight years, wo were relieved, in a great measure, from these unpleasant subterranean commotions. Napiei had grown into a small town. Wo had severed our connection with Wellington, and set up a new Province and Provincial Government of our own. We had, however, to take over our share of the earthquakes, as well as of the provincial debt, and in February, 1863, we were startled in the middle of the night by another violent shock. On this occasion Waipukurau, in Hawke's Bay, appeared to be the place most affected ; but Napier had a severe shaking, and most of the chimneys were thrown down, but, so far as I remember, no life was lost, whilst that of 1855, caused the death of Baron Yon Alzdorf who kept an hotel at Wellington, and was killed by the fall of a pier glass. It is reassuring to observe, in regard to these five very heavy earthquakes, how small was the loss of life, and also that of property. No doubt that arose in some measure from the few inhabitants then occupying the districts affected, and in a greater degree from the almost universal use at that time of wood as a building material. It will be observed also that the tendency in New Zealand is to raise the land and not to depress it, as in South America. At the same time, when I see a town like Wellington erecting lofty buildings ot brick, I cannot, with the memory of the past still fresh in mind, avoid a feeling of uneasiness as to tho result if it should again be visited by such a convulsion as that of IS4S or of 1555. In Napier also they are adopting brick, stone, and concrete as building materials. Although we at Napier had Tongariro as a safety-valve within eighty miles, it did ltot secure us exemption in 1555 or 1563. I hope it may do so in future. I remember on one occasion hearing the explosions of Tongariro, like musketi"- firing, almost every evening for about three weeks, but we had nro earthquake at that time. I hear*there has been some alarm in Auckland in confeequanee of the outbreak at Rotorua. In my opinion no place can be perfectly secure from earthquakes, but I should think the fact of a large vent being opened in the lake district was an additional security to Auckland.