The Earthquake.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 318, 29 June 1889, Page 2

The Earthquake.

At the Union Literary Society on Thursday evening a paper was read on the above subject, written by “Numbskull,” evidently a scientific observer of some weight. As the subject is so interesting at the present time, we have obtained permission to publish th. paper (which is from the Society', waste paper baske ). It fa as follows :— Earthquakes are shocking.—My first im- -A pression on feeling the last earthquake was that Poverty Bay wa. getting very shaky. Being of an impulsive nature afld solicitous for the welfare of my fellow m>n, I rushed out into the street to inquire i. anybody was frightened. The good but were themselves in the centre of Gladstone road. I enquired casually of the Town how much metal was on the centre of theW street, and he said fifteen feet or there- V about*. " I concluded if the earth yawned in this district it could not be where we stood, io I tried to calm down the exoitelßent. “Has Weaver gone up tq the Springs?'* said a Foxy ratepayer. ... ■ . “ Not yet I" was the reply. “Oh 1 well the country is safe. I feared that he must have had another blow up, and that the whole well was gone.” “Ah 1 my f.-ieud ” said I, “ you need not fear that, there will bo a great many ups and downs of pipes and borings about the final shock." Our fat townsman now arrived on the scene. “ I saw," said he, " Adair's place swing about like the rudder of a ship, and I could hardly keep my feet. One minute more and I should have thrown myself down on my face and hands on the footpath." We thought it would have been bad for the footpath, but said nothing. Mr Adair came out with a pen behind hie ear, and bis hands under hia coat tails, and asked us if we felt anything. We felt, said we, as if the House of Assembly was sitting, and that our Member had moved the house, and would have brought the whole house down with a roar, had he not been a Scotchman, and just lost the point oi the joke where it should have come in. Mr Adair said he would consider it well, but for the present he did not sea himself where the joke name in. An architect who builds houses on the Kaiti, said ho was positive earth, quake had added 10,009 acres County. We asked for an explanation. _ _. He said that the mountains would shaken up. and stocked closer togethsr. We believed him out Of courtesy. Wo do not wish to question it now, for It must be acknowledged that suoh a savors shake was enough to tutu even a Kaiti man's brain. It has worked on mlns—if any,