ANOTHER TREMENDOUS QUAKE. ENORMOUS DAMAGE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10501, 23 November 1901, Page 2

ANOTHER TREMENDOUS QUAKE. ENORMOUS DAMAGE.

An outside reader scanning the above startling head-lines would naturally expect to read of an earthquake rivalling those which wrecked Lisbon, the island of St. Thomas, and Iquiquc* and killed many thousands of people. But a perusal of the telegrams, which were s published in this and every journal in the colony supplied by the Press Association, quickly shows the hysterical and utterly unreliable character of these "scare" head-lines, which ■ are simply used as an incontive to people to buy the journals which descend to such methods of temporarily increasing' their circulation. So far from Cheviot being in ruins, all the telegrams, stated was that a child was killed by the collapse of a sod hovel, and that nearly all the chimneys — not a great number in all — had been shaken down. The shake brought down numerous landslips which blocked the roads, and' did other damage, which no doubt, in a young and struggling settlement, has inflicted a loss on its residents which" they can ill afford; but there is nothing in the different accounts of what actually occurred to warrant tho "scare" headlines indulged in by bo many of our contemporaries, which are highly calculated to injure Now Zealand in the opinion of outsiders who have been deliberating on the question of coming to settle in the most prosperous and propressive colony in the British Empire. "Another Tremendous Quake !" is not only misleading, but absolutely unwarranted. When did a "tremendous quake" previously occur in this colony? If one ever did during the period New Zealand has been a British possession, history has failed to record the fact, as there has been no serious loss of life during that time from earthquakes. The Tarawera disaster waa not caused by what is generally understood by the word "earthquake." It was the outcome of an oxplosion of steam generated by the waters of Lako Tarawera finding their way to the superheated subterranean strata which give rise to the thermal springs and fumaroles. The death roll from earthshakes in New Zealand during the last sixty years does not amount to a quartor of. that number of people, and falls very far below that from drowning, whicli during the same period has claimed many hundreds of victims who have lost their lives in tho rivers and streams of the colony. To show our readers what a disastrous convulsion of nature means, we need only refer to some of their victims. On 20th September/ 1899, an earthquake in Asia Minor killed 1500 people aud injured many more. The level country there sank six' feet. At Darjeeling (India) on the 25tb of the same month a number of shocks occurred,- which caused a considerable , loss of life and property. The year WOO was ushered in at" Tiflia by a heavy shock of earthquake, which caused the death of over 1000 persons. Japan suffered severely later on, as in July the volcano Mount Azuina became active, causing the death ofi^ovor 200 persons, whilht at the same time Tiflia.had another shake up, which caused numerous deaths and much destruction of property. Had the late ueieniic disturb-

ances in North Canterbury done anything approaching the damage of the above-mentioned convulsions of Nature the "scare" head-lines indulged in. by our Auckland evening contemporary and other New Zealand journals would have been warranted; as it is, they were not, and are only calculated to injure tho colony by preventing tourists and intending settlers from coming to it. Some people do not hesitate to run the risk of injuring the colony, provided that in doing so they can benefit themselves in any way. New Zealand has suffered severely in the past from such mendacious and misleading chroniclers of her public events and political history, who have not hesitated to imperil her credit in their deBire to indulge in sensational exaggerations, and unwarranted "scare" headings. To read the above misleading specimens of this objectionable practice of a certain class of journalists, the public would naturally expect to find something under them to warrant their use, but must have come to the conclusion that it was a modern instance of the old fable anent the mountain in labour and the ,birth of the mouse !