FOREST SWALLOWED

Taranaki Daily News, 5 November 1932, Page 9

FOREST SWALLOWED

THE WAIROA EARTHQUAKE.

MUD REPLACES THE RUSH.

Th© uncanny art ion of the ear ths surface during the earthquake which shook Hawke’s Bay on September causing 35 acres of high standing virgin bush to disappear- totally beneath a sea of broken and churned up mud, was referred to by Mr. H._ Bait, secretary of the Rfed Cross Society, at Napier, in an interview. The land upon which this phenomenon is stated to have happened is situated on the station owned by Mr. Thomas Byrne, Opouiti, on the road from Wairoa to Tiniroto, where the shock of the upheaval was of sufficient force to cause the timber homestead in places to collapse almost completely. The homestead, stated Mr. Tait, was situated on the side of. a slope, beyond which lay the valley in which the bush' stood before the upheaval. The action of the earthquake, however, not only caused the sides of the valley to converge, but 'also the centre of the valley to erupt, completely obliterating any sign of the forest. There was not a twig to be seen, stated Mr. Tait, merely-a sea of broken and churned up mud. The area., of - Bush thus- destroyed was between 30 and. 35 acres. Continuing, Mr; Tait stated that this w'as not the only place where action of this type took place, for about five miles distant there was another - instance of the surface of the earth having been severely churned, completely burying the surface which- existed before. In other places 1 the whole sides of hills were flattened out over gullies, the extent of the movement being ihdicated by the fact that lines of fences which formerly ran down the sides of the gullies were left hanging many feet in the air, presenting a strange "spec i taele. •