EARTHQUAKE REPAIRS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLV, Issue 22790, 14 January 1944, Page 4

EARTHQUAKE REPAIRS

Position In Wellington MUCH WORK YET TO BE DONE Though the big earthquakes took place m Wellington in June and August, 1942, repairs and strengthening work necessitated by the damage done on those occasions is far from completed (says the "Dominion”). This applies not only to the city, but to several adjacent country towns, where the earthquake was most severely felt, notably in the Wairarapa. There are still more than a hundred business premises that require attention, premises which would have been attended to lone- ago had the required labour been made available. There are some buildings in Wellington, outwardly undamaged, but inwardly wrenched, which mivht be seriously wrecked were they subjected to an earthquake as severe as those experienced in 1942. Though the -work of strengthening the General Post Office and removing top-hamper was carried on throughout last year, it is not improbable that the repairs and other work yet to be none may take several more months. Another building in the city which has had to be partly reconstructed is the Regent Theatre, Manners Street, and it will be some months before the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall can again be occupied. It is not only the Concert Chamber which requires attention. The whole of the northern corner of the Town Hall received a shake which cracked walls and plastered interiors seriously, though no such damage was suffered at the southern end of the structure.

Many office buildings and several warehouses have still to receive attention, but when tradesmen, labourers and scaffolding are made available in

sufficient numbers and quantity, the work should be all done in the current year. Apart from earthquake-damaged buildings, there are still many other buildings which, though not damaged, are burdened with heavy parapets, which should be removed in the interests of safety at the earliest occasion. The lesson learned in the Napier earthquake was only heeded by a few firms in Wellington, but those firms who did remove top-hamper and useless masonry from the skyline were those whose buildings suffered least in the 1942 earthquakes.