Seward daily gateway., 1931-07-16
DETAILS RECENT
 TERRIBLE QUAKE
 NEW ZEALAND
EYEWITNESS RELATES PER- SONAL OBSERVATIONS OF
 CATASTROPHE
(By Babe" Hayes)

pleasure of meeting G. WolSeley King, a prominent business man from Taradale, Hawkew Bay, New Zealand. I have heard from MT. King right along and on February 18th I received long letter from him giving me some news on the terrible earthquake which devas- tated parts of New Zealand last February, also writeup on some of the general conditions turnout the country.
 Quoting certain parts of ms letter. first in reference to the deer in New Zealand. 'The government paws 2 bounty on deer in New Zea- land. They are becoming a great nuisance in many parts ot New Zealand. It seems a great shame to have to destroy them, but they are doing SO much damage to trees and crops that the farmers have requested the government to re- 6uce their number. Of course New Zealand offers so much in the way of fodder for all animals as out III the back country we have hun dreds of thousands of acres of for ests that is evergreen. All Ne" Zealand forest is evergreen. Some years ago the Australian opossum were introduced into New Aealano and they have increased rapidly an over the hill and mountain country. We also have the rabbit nest in New Zealand. Australia has inc same pest and in some places the poor farmers are practically driven off their farms on account of the hordes of rabbits that in- habit their holdings.
 Now regarding the earthquake which we had on the morning o1 the 3rd of February when both the cities of Hastings and Napier were destroyed first by the earthquake and then by fire. That IS the great curse of gas for cooking purposes and it was the gas that set the fires going. Dozens of poor uh- fortunate people were ToaSted alive. Cries for help came fir
 the heaps of debris. People were trapped under bricks and mortar and large blocks of masonry. At the time of writing it is quite ln- possible to give an accurate ac- count of the damage done. one man who has lived in Napier TOT inc most of his life and who is well acquainted with "";l'uatlons, estl- mates that the total damage done to Hastings and Napier by the quake and fire would be over S5O,- 100000, and that is a very low es- innate. Both the stricken areas need sll the help they can se6 Hundreds of people have los. every thing they possessed. Where we live in Taradale, the distance frC':i Napier is but IS miles with Hast ings about nine miles furthei cn.
 "The whole affair is practically beyond me to describe, but : siall do my best to state what l saw myself. Where our home stands, we seemed to be right on top of the trouble. I was coming out ot the wash house when the "big shake" came and the first thing I knew but that Mrs. King was flung right out of the back door and down on the concrete yard. Our house stands high of the ground and we have four concrete steps to make it easy to get inside the house, so Mrs. King had a very bad fall, and to make mat ters worse, the bricks from the breakfast room chimney came tumbling down all around her. Some bricks struck her on the back of the hand, another on the arm and still another on the knee. I rushed her out of the wash-house and grabbed her arm, pulled her to her feet and we both ran to- wards the motor shed but we did