Santo Rocked by Quake

By Vernon Wheatley.

AT 9 a.m. on March 11, Santo, New Hebrides, suffered an earthquake of some severity. Most houses rocked violently and many were shaken off their piles. In some cases, severe damage was done, both to buildings and contents.

Business houses also suffered to the ex tent of damage to stock, fittings and

premises. All business firms closed on the following day, a Monday, and several were not sufficiently re-organised to resume activities on the Tuesday.

Burns Philp, Ltd., had most of their shop fittings torn from the walls, but amid the chaos, surprisingly little permanent damage was discovered.

The firm of Comptoirs Francais Nouvelles Hebrides did not suffer much damage: Maison Barrau and Hebrida, to gether with Mr. Tom Harris, reported

stock damage. Fung Kwan Chee reported structural damage—a water tank crashed to the ground. Lo Po’s store moved on its piles and fissures appeared in the ground near the building.

The house occupied by the Giozzi family was burned to the ground after the building partially collapsed an over turned oil stove started the fire. Mr.

Bert Edwards’ residence was severely damaged when the kitchen section fell about four feet to the ground. The entire building moved a foot to one side. In one small block, four buildings moved from their piles and the other houses moved bodily on their supports and became fixed at distances up to U inches from their original positions.

IN the wharf area the approaches to Piers 3, 4 and 5 dropped two feet. It is difficult to discover what actual damage was done to the piers themselves owing to their decrepit condition, due to neglect and the weather.

At South Santo, the shake was equally severe; fissures appeared in the ground and the bridge across the river has gaps between it and the banks. The bridge spanning the Saracata River, in Santo, developed a buckle in its middle.

Mr. Les Fox who was week-ending at South Santo, returned home in the early hours of Monday morning to find most of the contents of his, home overturned and scattered, including a large kerosene refrigerator. Fortunately, the refrigerator lamp was extinguished during the over turning. Not a building in Santo escaped without some damage.

The last big earthquake occurred here in 1936.

Mr. Roger Hennessy, eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. T. Hennessy of Rabaul, New Guinea, was married to Miss Benson of Drummoyne, Sydney early in March.