Warning !

Progress, Volume I, Issue 7, 1 May 1906, Page 161

Warning !

The calamity that has befallen San Francisco should not altogether pass unheeded by the progressionists of New Zealand. Indeed, the lesson taught is one that should affect those responsible for the constructional advancement of our cities and towns in a very large degree. True, the exigencies of progress demand that modern buildings shall be fire-proof, commodious and ornamental ; but are we not courting disaster in evading the rules that govern the principles of architecture m a country liable to be disorganised by seismic disturbance ? The Calitorman affair has had no parallel since the great earthquake at Lisbon, when, on the ist of November, 1755, the greater part of the city was razed to a heap of ruins, forty thousand persons were killed, and the total damage done exceeded £20,000,000 sterling. Yet the people of San Francisco were perhaps justified in conducting building operations in an advanced style, for the liability of the city to serious earthquake has been rare since 1868. Not so, however, with our own colony, which presents a daily object lesson well worthy of the closest attention ; and there is yet time for the people of Wellington at any rate, whose city is in process of formation, to abide by the experiences of men who have given lifelong study to building construction m earthquake countries, and to put into force the excellent practices suggested by their writings. Progress has on past occasions published articles, written by a leading architect of New Zealand, advocating serious consideration of this matter ; now it is again thought opportune to draw the attention of our large circle of readers, both professional and lay, to the first of a series of articles, based on the opinions of one of the greatest authorities on earthquakes, which appears m this issue. An interesting paper on the interior of the earth is also printed on page 173, from the pen of Beresford Ingram, who lucidly explains the most recent scientific deductions as to the earth's crust, and the cause of earthquakes.