Violent Earthquake

Woodville Examiner, Volume XX, Issue 37204, 10 August 1904, Page 2

Violent Earthquake

SEVEREST EVHit FELT IX W Oi d)\TLLE. creates g ii eat pax:' . | i < dAIXATELY NO SERIOUS : JAMAGE HUNK. I • de most violent eart lu| uak ; ever ; experienced in these pat ts in ; lie inemoiy oi 1!:t; residents of Wuodville occurred at twenty-two minutes past ten yesterday morning. !; commenced with a brisk shake gradually worked up in viole until it culminated in what seem an absolute upheaval of the whole earth. The streets were soon thronged with people, the d barked and madly careered round, and the serenity of a beautiful spring morning was converted into a regular pandemonium. It seemed as though the earth swayed foi quite a long time after the actim’ shock took place, and many peopc. were made quite ill with the in - pleasant motion and the frig!:; • Several chimneys were cracked, am; one at Mr Moore’s residence in Tl : ■ Street had the top knocked down. A large pane of glass in Mr Ernest Grinlintou’s shop was cracked in ail directions. These minor damage:' were practically all that happened in Woodville. Some anxiety was felt as to the Post Office, but with the exception of a small amount of plaster coming down in most of the upstair rooms, the building withstood the strain very well. The shock lasted for over a minute, and was accompanied by a roaring noise which endid in a repot t like the ctack of some bu ; stock whip. Many ladies fainted, and a gcoei a i sickne-.s prevailed throughout the town tor som-• time. At Mr Foster Brook’s shop sevei al ornaments were thrown down, but not a great number were bluffer lu Mr Leigh’s shop some boi ties . ; medicine came down, but strange m say were, not broken. At the botuN some of the bottles came down, and in one. or two cases there was a smash. In other establishment similar occurrences are reported, but everyone is agreed that they got off very well. Through the shock a subsidence of about a foot took place at the approach to the Kopua viaduct on the line between Ormond ville an Dannevirke, and the Napier exp:. -• was delayed for about three h i:,. - before traffic was rendered safe over tin' vi a c! n n; , 0 1 i . . . , or I: l,u WUi U I ivrr. 1 llf: shock was very severe there, tree.being broughi down in all direction-. The chin,r.iys at the Club H have bee;; coadoumeu as a result e! the i ;i. ake, all being damaged mor ■ or less. Tile slock must Live been severe j f.t Oete, as Mr Bolton had to send urgently -his not mug for a bricklayer. The big stuck at the Bacon Company’s Works swayed fully six iWt. but so far as is known at present was not damaged seriously. AT OTHER PLACES, In Dannevirke the shock crested much consternation, and tnere were many narrow escapes. In Mr Pallant’s shop a chimney era; bed down, the bricks coming through the roof and falling perilously n ar a girl working in the room. Indeed her escape was almost miraculous, Messrs Barraud and Abraham’s new building was cracked across the front and will have to bo pulled down. It was only erected as high as the first story. In many buildings chimneys have been damaged to such an extent that they are being pulled down. A hotel chimney at Mangatera toppled over, damaging the telegraph line. A chimney in the Cosmopolitan buildings crashed through the Bank building adjoining a room occupied by a clerk named Alfred Tausley being completely wrecked. Fortunately, Tansley was absent from the room when the earthquake occurred. A chimney fell through the roof at the Skeats Cycle Company’s premises and smashed a machine which Mr Bernet had the moment before left. The room was filled with broken bricks and timber, and numbers of bicycles were smashed. At Messrs Jeffrey’s and Piior’s chemist’s shops there was a downfall of bottles, and an unspeakable mess of drugs and chemicals. A falling bottle broke Mr Jeffrey’s plateglass window. Every chimney in the Masonic Hotcd was wrecked. Miss Eyan, a deck at Messrs Barraud & Abraham, was struck on the head with a falling tin of orange peel. At the D.O.A. Miss Jacobs was crushed and bruised by a roil of linoleum which fell on her as she was descending the stairs, A. L. Gordon and Co.'s crockery suffered severely and a square of plate glass was broken in pieces. There was a great and expensive fail in bottles in the Club Hotel. A chimney fell 15 feet, wrecking a servant’s bedroom. The Railway Hotel was also badly shaken. Mr W. Haine’s brick kiln is badly damaged and a lot of pipes broken. lie estimates bis damage at £SOO. i Little or no damage was done at Palmerston or Feildiug, and telegrams from Christchurch, Greymouth, Nelson, Westport, Hokitika, Reef ton, Auckland, Gisborne, Wairoa Hamilton, Ehlmtn, Pahiatua, Mas.erton, Wairarapa, and Napier show i hat the shock was felt with more or less severity in all these places. Singularly enough, the Jiot Lakes district was not generally j affected. At Rotorua tLere was no' ' the slightest siirn of an earthquake, j Waimangu reported that the shock 1 was verv vaguely iolt---barely ( ‘ iceahle, in fact. j ; At Wcliingion the damage is very ! xu-n.-ive, and the shock was ihe | linrst felt since 1.355. Tin; public | I ibrary building, which was damaged | 1 jy the previous earthquake, is ji :hrow out of plumb with the adjoin- i t ng building and the mof and walls j ; ire extensively cracked, it is feared j 1

the crrcatei’ pair of the buildincr will to he ih rooli-:'fd, TH? ParHa* ■ :v'-iry buildM-trs m ffer? : d . > • •■■ fomnnrdow n. i >; u-;; ■ W''a ;■ ::i c-11t-s a!i r, v • ■ - r : ._ ai U; nami'-r of v.r iwOed ai.d street.' j». r -id • - at tg i’i i to a n v. to i. j; •I. : ..jn : I cbildron who * n-u.- .• of onAlo-r (,( ; • !• ii'iffi' : -uttered netsvily, in tlit* bars bottles being sliakeo oil the shelves. A number of oink houses were cracked, hun- ■ r>t windows e broker, and '■dt i;d)ledamage io crockery and -wurein privatehousesoccaiTed, . i Mastt-rum, chimneys were . dik'd tc the ground in all direc- .-. and grocers and chemises’ dons became a confused mass cf broken nottle? and glass. The j ost utiii'e clock lower and a number of other brick buildings were damaged, I some seriously. Only a slight -Ik.ok was fCt at Tw.iru. I At Auckland, two consecutive ■ ■ .kes, the latter being L 1 j G mest i Aod nt over experienced, and the two • m.-ting one and a-half minutes, occurred at 10.21 a.m. People rushed in'o the the street in alarm, chirrmy- were cracked, and buildinga •Vi, re strained, but/no damage is re- | parted beyond broken windows and crockery. The earthquake did considerable damage to all the chimneys in Wiipukurau. At Mr Coney’s hotel about £75 worth of damage was done in the front bar. The tailway reiTeshmont rooms suffered to the ax'er.t of about £3O. Mr Caldwell, ci. i lost. £TS worth cf drugs A; Nelson Bros, building the ■ • : c_v stack was twisted partly Very few chimneys are left staud- ■ . ;n Ormondville an! not only in but in private houses sad i ..v jc Las been caused. In more than one instance narrow escapes A : severe injury, if not actual : . from falling bricks, etc., are raoa. .-u Waipawa the shoe,: was the s 1 v-. r-.st since ISU3. The place i Hi suffered most was the EmHotel, where two chimneys utterly destroyed. One crashed mrough the balcony, wrecking the roof and floor, while one came down on the roof of the billiard-room, partly penetrating thereof and forcing Cue end of the rafters through , wail of the staircase. The kit- • :..n chimney also was shaken. < ):'g:i Or.ga and Hampden appear i.ave suffered, the former place '••v. rely. It is reported that up'■a'ds ef 20 chimneys are down. At Airang.ibau the scene is described being terrible. Nearly every cause bus broken chimneys and ; uttered and twisted tanks. Con-siii.r-’tb.t? damage was also done in >u i va'e houses, loose ornaments and the like being shattered. Weh.i.v_.to.v, Tnie Day. The Secretary of the Postal Dep .'T.v-nr received the following t ■mam from the Postmaster at C-.-'i'epoint yesterday : ff Heavy eavbipna ke npnarentlv travelling X.XAV, Severn! fissures in the c.t; :h. Bine mud and water escap* ii g in quite a warm state. Considerable damage to buildings^