WOULD RATHER FACE WAR

Taranaki Daily News, 7 February 1931, Page 9

WOULD RATHER FACE WAR

EARTHQUAKE EXPERIENCES OP UN AKE MAN SUFFERS LOSSES. LUCKY ESCAPE OF HIS FAMILY. “I would rather go back to the war than put in another such experience, for you knew what old Frit? was sendin" you a-iul two shells never landed ii/the same place, whereas at Napiei on Tuesday one did not know what was coming and it seemed 'as if hosts of shells had landed in the one place. Thus spoke Mr, Arnold Richards, a a well known business man and cx-resi-dent of Opunake, when interviewed at Opunake yesterday just after his are rival from Napiei*. Mr. Richards is w a good position to judge as he put ,n three veers’ overseas service in the Great War and went through three days’ harrowing experience at Napiei. Mr. Richards with his wife and family of four young children had been spending a holiday at Opunake with his Wife’s parents (Mr. and Mrs. 1. Des gorges), arid they left on their return last Saturday morning, taking with them Mr. Richards’ wife’s sister, Airs. Arthur Hickman, and her two children, who were "oing to spend a holiday at Napier, little realising how rudely interrupted that holiday was to be. ' Mr. Richards, however, though his business is now a thing of the past anil he has probably lost all that he possesses in worldly "oods, counts himself ns remarkably fortunate that he and his family escaped practically unscathed, a bruised shoulder that /his wife sustained being the only injury. His business staff of seven were equally fortunate, only one employee, a girl, receiving a cut from flying glass. Mr. Richards and his partner, Mr. Bert Williams, were the proprietors of Liberty’s open warehouse with a shop in Emerson Street and a brahch at’ Efuadale. The branch had a residence attached and it Was there that Mi. Richards and his family resided. FOUR BIG WAVES. At the time of the earthquake Mr. .(iehards was -in his office whilst his partner was in the boot department and four girls were in the drapery department, a boy and another lady assistant being in .a room at the back. The first intimation they received was the heavy rocking which came in four .big waves. The first of these smashed the plate glass windows, threw the stock about the shop in indescribable confusion and scattered the stock hanging outside ittto the road. All rushed outside safely and Mr. Richards was hurriedly gathering his stock off tlie road to throw it Into the shop again when he saw the Central Hotel opposite, a two-storey brick building, crumble as though a big shell had Struck it. He and his partner assisted to lift a Maori out of the ruins blit the Maori appeared tb be beyond assistance. They then helped a lady Whose face was injured. ■Sti’angely enough Mr. Rieliaids’ shop, in a wooden twb-Stofey block with tints on top, did not appear to have Suffered any serious damage--beyond the broken plate glass windows. They- were also able to fescue tWo wpiiien who were almost hysterical, from the top floor. Air. Richards’ chief concern was for his wife and family and after sending the dhzed shopgirls home and leaving the lad in charge he set out. for Taradale, five miles away. A couple of hours later fire completed the destruction of his premises. .. Getting to Taradale was not so easy ns it seeined; Fortunately Mr, Richards had his car at a parking place near the Public Trust building, which stood the shock, but owing to fissures in the roads and slips he . had to try three different routes before he could get through, and even then he had to leave his car and walk the last mile and a-lialf as the Redeliffs bridge was impassable, one span being in the shape of i V whilst the other was ten feet from the road. DAMAGE AT TARADALE. Arriving at his shop, in the centre of Taradale, Mr. Richards was relieved to find that the exterior was in fair■ Shape, for it was a single storey ’building of wood with a dwelling' attached and a front consisting of two plate glass windows With a concrete foundation. These were not even cracked, though the interior of the shop was littered with the stock, whilst in the dwelling every room was inches deep with broken crockery and glass, not a picture or anything breakable having escaped. Mrs. Richards had just entered the kitchen where hoi - sister, Mrs. Hickman, was cooking, when a heavy bookease fell behind her, bruising her shoulder, though she did not notice it at the time. They got safely outside somehow, the children fortunately being away, two at school and the other two out with- their cousins. Showing the vagaries of the sh/ike Mr. Richards pointed oiit that tile shop next to his at Taradale, which had a concrete and brick front, had all the windows broken Whilst the adjoining one, similarly constructed, sustained very little damage. Wooden dwellings came through the shake fairly ;vell, though practically all lost their chimneys besides suffering sonic structural damage, but their interiors were badly smashed, heavy furniture, inbludlng planets ami ranges, being tlii’own across the flour. Brick buildings in the Taradale district suffered severely, several persons being killed when, the hotel whs destroyed, whilst the Catholic seminary liearby it was the scene of many deaths. Mrs. Percy’s magnificent residence where hospitality was so freely dispensed was flattened.

Mr. Richards stated that while the brick walls of the Taradale hotel had collapsed the roof was being held up by the wooden interior partitions. The policeman’s residence, a single-storey structure, was in similar circumstance. The buildings that stood up to the shake best were undoubtedly the steel frame concrete structures.

With a bolt of SO-inch sheeting and pome safety pins Mr. Richards built a bivouac against a fence in liis back paddock and there, despite the rain of Wednesday night, thp children were able to sleep comfortably, though of course the adults were not so fortunate.

On Thursday morning at 3 o’clock Mr. D. Richards with his partner left Opunake for Napier to get some tidings of his brother, Mr. J. Morris, Mr. A. Hickman accompanying them in another ear. They yeachcd Taradale about 2 o'clock and Mr. Richards said that he nearly wept with joy at seeing them. They took ample supplies of benzine with them and at 6 o’clock the Vliolo party left on their return to Opunake, which was reached at 3 o’clock yesterday morning, Mr. A. Richards also driving his own car.