NELSON CITY BADLY HIT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18787, 17 June 1929, Page 11

NELSON CITY BADLY HIT.

“ SCREAMING WOMEN RUSH INTO STREETS.” Per Press Association. NELSON, July 17. The centre of the city was badly hit. The noise of falling bricks, the crash of plate glass, and the screaming of hysterical girls and women as they rushed into the streets from the swaying buildings made up a scene never to be forgotten. The Masonic Hotel buildings perhaps suffered the most. Portions of brick partitions and walls crashed down as well as chimneys, one of the latter scattering over the roadway in Hardy Street, and narrowly missing passersby. Boon’s Pharmacy, adjoining, was badly damaged, the plate glass windows being smashed to atoms. A heavy concrete cornice fell from the top of the building and made a dent several inches deep in the asphalt footpath. The stock of the shop was badly damaged. This can also be said of other chemist shops and of stores where breakable goods were in stock. Cracks were made in the brick business premises of B. Rathen (draper), Hallenstein Bros, (clothiers), the Bank of New Zealand, the National Bank and the Union Bank of Australia. There were also heavy falls of plaster, particularly at the last-named premises. A large number of windows in business premises were either pushed well out of plumb or shattered to pieces.