The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 1909. EARTHQUAKES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13811, 23 January 1909, Page 4

The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 1909. EARTHQUAKES.

The countries bordering on the Mediterranean appear to bo suffering to a , quite unusual degrop from v the instaI bility of the earth's crust. Another destructive earthquake, in a fresh | quarter, is reported to-day. Those disasters have of late followed one another more rapidly than usual, or perhaps they only appear to have done so, because, except by a few investigators,, it is. not, customary to keep a strict tally of them for purposes of comparison. Were this done, it would probably bo seen that frequently, say within the last hundred years, there had been a similar series of great earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occurring within the space of a month or two. A single disaster of the kind arouses no remark upon a larger question than itself. But when they occur one after another, in different parts of the world, they are reminders that the earth's surface has not yet settled down to permanent stability, and that there still remain risks of upheavals and subsidences that must prove destructive to, every form of man's handiwork exposed to them. But though forcible, these reminders arc not alarming, because, as one of the scientists said the other day, human life is short, and the subterranean processes are slow; in other words—the world will last our time. There have been occasions in the history of the earth, when such a remark would • presently have proved out of place, occasions when the whole earth was mightily convulsed, aud death and disaster were by no means localised, occasions wheal the convulsions of nature gave the human race good grounds for believing that the world was coming to an end. It is a vague inherited memory of one of those far off events, which augments the terror caused by a violent earthquake to-day, and gives rise to the idea—which, judging from the remarks that are chronicled, seems generally to. arise—that the world is coming to an end. For many thousands and tens of thousands, sad to say, the late Messina earthquake had that meaning. But the instinct alluded to must have had some larger origin than an event so localised. What the nature of that event was is referred to in Chambers' "Wonder Book" on earthquakes and volcanoes, wherein some quotations are given from the works of well-known authorities, regarding catastrophes of world-wide destructiveness, such as, iC experienced by the human race, and one or more of them were, would well account for the instinctive horror which seizes many people when involved in an earthquake It oxplains. too, to some extent, the letting loose of primitive instincts, which, in San Francisco and in Messina, made it necessary to order the shooting of looters. Education that gives self-control, and a knowledge of the laws of [nature are valuable safeguards against such loss of mental and moral balance. The earth will last pur ■ time, - but when i

somo small locality lias boon proved to be so circumstanced that there is a, considerable risk that it will not last long, commonsense would advise that it, be avoided as the site for a city. The proposal therefore to rebuild Messina is contrary to that advice, and can only bo justified on the ground that there is no safer site available for tho chief port of Sicily, and that it will be rebuilt of earthquake-proof structures, so far as modern architecture is acquainted with such structures.