EARTHQUAKES.

Colonist, Volume LIII, Issue 13087, 22 April 1911, Page 1

EARTHQUAKES.

Mr. James M'Dowell writes to the Wellington "Post" :— "1 lelated in your columns over two years ago the experiences of tho lato Mr. John Primmer concerning Wellington's two severest earthquakes, those of 1845 and of 185 G. The lato Mr. Isaac Plimmcr was working in a

sawmill of his father's on Mount Victoria when the earthquakes started ■that lasted for over three months from first to last. Some of the people went at night to the top of Mount Victoria, and saw the Hashes of eruptions at intervals in the sky in the direction of the Cheviot county or the Haniner hot springs. Those electric and eruption bursts wore of the same class as those J saw in 18(39 and 1870 from Number Two Line, south side of the Wanganui river, and which proceeded from Tongariro. These reverberations were distinct and prolonged even at that great distance. Again, when the. Pink and White Terraces were destroyed, the reverberations from the eruptions were so great that many heard them at my place in Oriental Bay as prolonged intervals of thundering. "I remember Sir George Nares over forty years ago in the Challenger, surveying around Cook Strait for the cables and showing us a map of his discovery of the volcanic crater whoso eruption's have so often disturbed Wellington. The mouth of this submarine monster crater—much larger than Mount Eden, one that dominates Auckland—lies towards the mouth of I'alliser Hay, and is distant from Wellington as the crow flies about G4 miles. One lip of the crater lias boon blown out. After all heavy earthquakes the sea from Palliser Bay till past Kaikoura is covered for many miles with quantities of dead fish from submarine eruptions. 'Tho severest sfcako we had ill iWcw lington for forty years was on a forenoon about six years ago—l do not remember the date—when the badlybuilt chimneys on Adelaide road and part of Kent Terrace suffered, as they wore all built on made ground—l remember it as a mini hog. Outside of those chimneys no dainnge occurred.

"I relate the experience, of the lato Mr. Bennett, of Hobson street, Auckland, on tho night the Pink ami White Terraces were destroyed by the Tara\vor;i eruptions, as follows : —'At intervals all that night there was the rumble under Auckland as if a hundred express trains were running at full speed, backward and forward from Mount Kden under the harbour to Mount Rangitoto, and faint sinoko issued from Rangitoto for some time. Seventeen extinct craters and volcanic cones are visible from Mount Eden on a clear day. Even by tradition, the Maoris have no record of eruptions. Good may occur to Wellington by Dr. MacLaren's prophecy. Moral: tr> cease building with rotten bricks, in either houses or chimneys.' "