SUNDAY'S EARTHQUAKE.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13929, 10 February 1914, Page 6

SUNDAY'S EARTHQUAKE.

L, , (United Pbkss Asj-ooution^] ~

GREAT SEVERITY IN WELLINGTON.

DAMAGE TO TOWN HALL. jy 3

[United Peess Associatiok.J

Wellington, Feb. 9. Sunday's earthquake seems to .have been felt most severely on the eastern side of .the city. Many articles in private houses were shaken down, though no serious damage happened. Clocks stopped very generally, and the old destructor chimney swayed considerably. In the Hutt Valley the shake was very pronounced, the ground moving in waves, according to some accounts. Mr. G. Hogben, Inspector-General of Schools, who has made a special study of seismology, informed a reporter that a premonitory tremor came at 11.33 a,m., and lasted three seconds; then came the sharp main shock, which lasted eight seconds, followed by vibrations and oscillations which extended over some twenty seconds; so that the whole earthquake may be said to have covered a period of fully half a minute. There were additional slight shocks last evening, and during the night, but nothing to be compared with the main visitation.

The building which appears to have been most severely damaged is the Town Hall. The municipal organ was badly shaken, and was not fit for playing on this morning; but the city^ organist says there is, no structural injury to the organ. The ceilings of the Mayor's room, and'several other rooms, and also of the main corridor on the first floor, all showed numerous cracks gaping through the plaster. The city library, in Mercer street, which in the 1904 earthquake suffered as severely as any building in Wellington, came out of yesterday's ordeal, so to speak, without a scratch. The strengthening of the walls and foundations after the last shake enabled1 it to stand the test splendidly. Waipawa, Feb. 9. Earthquake shocks were felt at 11.35 a.m. yesterday, and also at 7.40 p.m. • Pahiatua, Feb. 9. . A severe and unusually prolonged shock of earthquake was felt hero yesterday morning at 11.30. It was preceded by k>ud rumbling, which startled church worshippers. The direction of the shake was from the west.