SHARP EARTH TREMOR

Taranaki Daily News, 17 October 1927, Page 6

SHARP EARTH TREMOR

NEW PLYMOUTH SHAKEN , VARIOUS MINOR. DAMAGE RESULT® APPARENTLY ONLY LOCAL SIIOCH6, Preceded by a sudden weird nimble, a sharp earthquake shook New Plymouth just as the post office clock was striking one on Saturday afternoon. Though lasting only a few seconds, the shock was of a more violent nature than has been experienced for some years, and many people grew quite alarmed.

A variety of minor damage is reported. Bricks were dislodged from a chimney in the West End of the town. In one shop crockery was hurled to the floor, and in another a stack of boots' was precipitated to the floor, while several vases fell over in a jeweller’s shop. Various incidents of a disoonderting nature occurred in private homes. In a lower Vogeltown house a maesivq bronze clock standing on a wide mantelshelf was thrown violently to the floor, and after making an appreciable hollow in the floor boards bowled over half way across the room. In another house a shaving brush and mug toppled off a shelf while the owner was in the act of shaving, and a violin crashed from its resting place to the floor.

In the centre of the town the taller buildings rocked perceptibly, and people in many cases rushed to the windows, a general impi'ession that a lorry or some other vehicle had crashed into the bottom storey being created on upper floors by the strange noise that accompanied the earthquake, “Wasn t that a beauty!” was a common expression’ heard from passers by in the street as they gave a relieved sort of grin after calm had been restored. The tremor seems to have been* of a) local nature, for it is not reported by telegraph from any other centres.