NEW PLYMOUTH HAS SEVERE EARTHQUAKE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18407, 8 March 1928, Page 10

NEW PLYMOUTH HAS SEVERE EARTHQUAKE.

CHIMNEY POTS FALL WHEN SHOCK OCCURS. Per Pr«s« Association. NEW PLYMOUTH, March 7. Damage amounting to many hundreds of pounds and a general demolition of chimney tops resulted from a severe earthquake in New Ply mouth at 6.50 a.m. to-day. The shake was the most violent experienced here for many > r ears. It lasted about 30 sec onds, working up to a climax and then suddenly dying away. Numbers of chimneys were destroyed, while, many others are cracked or have their tops displaced, necessitating a partial demolition for repairs. In Eliot Street four houses in a row had the tops of their chimneys dislodged. A tour of the borough discloses chimney pots nestling in all sorts of grotesque attitudes on the top of rickety piles of bricks, which were once subsantial chimney tops, and bricklayers are beseiged with repair orders sufficient to keep them busy for a long time. Shops and buildings have also suffered, many displays of chinaware having been dislodged and an occasional plate glass window cracked. Shelves in many homes collapsed, and articles in all positions were thrown on the floor Several minor slips occurred, quantities of earth being dislodged from several high banks. One house suffered more than the most. The whole top of one chimney was snapped clean off near the root and turned 45 degrees round, settling down again on the rest of the chimney, diagonally. Nearly all the piles were wrenched up out of the ground and settled again. The whole contents of the pantry' were precipitated in a jumbled mass on to the floor. The glass of pictures was shattered and books from book cases were hurled right across the room and other minor damage done. Inglewood, Waitara, Stratford and Hawera all report having experienced the shake, though no damage occurred. in New Plymouth the shock was much greater on the seaward side of the suburb of Fitzroy and in the locality near Pukekura Park than anywhere else.