SEVEREST KNOWN IN SYDNEY

Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1931, Page 9

SEVEREST KNOWN IN SYDNEY

“CRUMBLING OF OCEAN BED.”

HUNDRED MILES FROM COAST.

By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.

Rec. ,10.15 p.m. Sydney, Feb. 13. The Observatory authorities declare that the seismograph to-day recorded the biggest earthquake in the history of the observatory. The shock was so great that the pens were thrown off the chart at 11.31 a.m.

A message from Adelaide states that at the Government observatory the earthquake caused the needle to oscillate.off the chart, swinging at least six inches.

Father O’Leary, of the Riverview Observatory, having examined the charts at 4 p.m., said:. “I find the epicentre was not New Zealand but out in the ocean about 100 miles off the coast. There was a crumbling of the ocean bed. This would account for the shock being so widespread and being felt in both islands. My seismograph is no\y steady.”

CONTRIBUTIONS TO RELIEF. BRITISH FUND REACHES £15,622. London, Feb. 12. The New Zealand earthquake relief fund totals £15,622, including donations from Lord Inchcape and Lloyds ( £5OO each) and Lord Jellicoe ( £5O).