WIPED OUT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 44, Issue 134036, 2 January 1918, Page 5

WIPED OUT.

GUATEMALA'S TRAGIC FATE.

(Beuter'a Teli-jframe.)

WASHINGTON, Sunday. Eighty per cent oi' Guatemala Cityhas been demolished by earthquakes.. The earthquakes started'-oh- Christina* Day and continued for two days. Thousands oi: peaple have . been ' rendered homeless.

Doe]i fissures have opened in the middb oi! Guatemala City.

Theatres, asylums and gaols collapsed, many of the, inniatcg being killed or injured. An indescribable panic uxf~ vails.

Th« final shock literally wiped onfc thy city.

(Guatemala, capital of the Republic is built on a healthy site more than. 5000 feet above sea-level. The countryit! volcanic, and numerous earthquakes, have occurred. Most of the houses areof only one story, though solidly and. comfortably constructed. Chief amongthe public buildings are the Cathedral— erected in J7P.o—the archiepiscopal palace, the Government buildings, the mintv and other public ofliees; the military" academy, museum, hospitals and orphanages. The general prosperity, and to some extent the appearance, of Guatemala have procured for it the name of the Paris of. Central America. It islighted by eletricity and has a good telephone .service, 'its trade is chie/Iyiu coffee, but it also possesses citrtir factories, -wool and cotton factories, tanneries, and other industrial establishments. The population oi' ; lie city is '■lose on .11)0,000.)