Page 8 Advertisements Column 3

Waikato Times, Volume 109, Issue 18256, 18 February 1931, Page 8

ever the submarine precipice, thus prolonging the- severity of the earthquake. “City of the Plains.” Of tlie future Mr Hill was optimisin'. in his opinion Napier and Hastings should sink their differences and combine to form the two places into one town with the harbour at Kidnappers Point. "The City of the Plains" of the North island was how .Mr Hill put it. Kidnappers Point was Hie place where the breakwater now at Napier should really have been constructed in the first place. Hastings would be the centre, Napier the pleasure resort, and Kidnappers Point the port. .Mr Hill found his father and the Misses Hill safe, but victims of harrowing experiences. Their house on the Bluff was now balanced on the edge of a precipice. Mr Hill, senior, who is a eminent geologist, carefully studied the earthquake from its inception and as a result formed the opinion mentioned above. Mr Hill lost many valuable books, geological and botanical specimens, although with the aid of Marines a collection of Maori books, dating from (hose lies I published by the Colenso Press at Kororariki. Bay of Islands, was recovered. Mr Hill, senior, and the Misses Hill, arc now slaying at their summer icsidenee at Taupo.

The urgency of preparing uniform ■ building by-lows to minimise the - -V earthquake damage risk was stressed ul the annual meeting of llm New Zealand Society of Civil Engineers at Auckland,