Earthquake

Press Panic Over Rabaul

Legislative Council Censures “Misleading and Inaccurate” Reports

AN extraordinary wave of news paper hysteria followed the severe Force-7 earthquake that rocked Rabaul, New Guinea, at 2.30 a.m. on April 24. This has alter nately amused and enraged Rabaul residents, who, on the whole, have taken this earthquake, as they have taken many others in the past, with equanimity.

No one who has experienced an earthquake will minimise the effect of a severe shake in the early hours of the morning but by the following day Rabaul was going quietly about its usual Anzac Day obser vances while the rest of the world, encouraged by panic newspaper headlines, was contemplating large scale rescue operations.

Some newspapers went to the trouble to point out that while the last Administrator, Colonel J. K.

Murray, had “pleaded with the (Australian) Government to shift Rabaul,” the decision to retain it was largely the work of the present Administrator, Mr. D. M. Cleland.

They added that Mr. Cleland had “refused to comment” on the Fors,e 7 shake of April 24. Mr. Cleland was, however, almost the only per son who exercised such reticence.

It has been conveniently forgotten that the majority of Rabaul citizens were inordinately pleased when it was decided to retain Rabaul as the capital of New Britain; and that, even if the capital had been shifted to Rapopo, which is 20 miles from Rabaul, that site also would have been subject to severe earth quakes, as it was on this occasion.

After the opening of the recent session of the Papua and New Guinea Legislative Council in Port Moresby on May 4, Mr. D. Barrett, member for New Guinea Islands, moved an adjournment to discuss the press reports on the Rabaul earthquake. He said that the reports from Australian and local news papers and Australian radio were misleading and inaccurate. One Australian newspaper had had a volcano in Talasea in violent erup tion although there was no activity in the area at all. The disturbance had been tectonic and not volcanic and while the latter can be pre dicted there is no way at all of predicting the former. (The news papers had made much capital out of the fact that although Rabaul residents had been promised warn ing of volcanic disturbances, on this occasion they had been given none).

Damage, said Mr. Barret, was con fined mainly to poorly constructed temporary homes where there was

breakage of crockery and glassware.

But it was worth noting that there was no damage at all to the delicate equipment of Department of Civil Aviation installations, or to the X-Ray plant in the local hospital or to the delicate machinery in the oil mill of Coconut Products Ltd.

No one enjoyed earthquakes, he said, and it was certain that some residents of Rabaul were far from happy. But this unhappiness was caused more by bad, temporary housing and bad road conditions than by earthquakes.

During the quake, a door in one of these temporary houses jammed and a woman and two children

Kavieng’s Force- 8 Earthquake—see page 114 of this issue.

were trapped inside until a native servant smashed in the door with an axe.

Mr. Barrett, in conclusion said that the District Commissioner should be the one to decide whether there was a state of emergency— and not someone in a newspaper office, 500 to 2,000 miles away.

The Rev. F. G. Lewis spoke in support of Mr. Barrett and sug gested that at such times there should be censorship of “irrespon sible press reports.”

Dc’S Summary

Mr. J. K. McCarthy, District Commissioner New Britain, said that 2.30 a.m. is a frightening time to face a crisis but Rabaul had faced it with courage. The ohly section to panic was the press and radio. Four administration tem porary houses had been damaged so as to be unfit for habitation.

There were many burst rainwater tanks. Tunnel Hill escape road was in bad condition—but from rain,

not from the quake. Namanula Hi] road had been blocked by fallihj earth and trees but was clearel in two hours. The coast road t Kok o p o had remained opei throughout. He said that followinj the quake there had been an un usual rising and falling of the tid but no one had seen the four-fee tidal waves reported in the loca paper and no ship had been dam aged or swept onto a reef, as hai been reported. The telephone ser vice had remained in operatic!

The electricity circuit had beei

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Ibroken at Namanula and all elec tricity had been cut off for a time. iAn auxiliary plant had been used ito keep radio communications open.

A check of local volcanoes showed mo unusual thermal activity.

He said the position was not im [proved by an ABC commentator (“a scientific instrument in human iform”) who went on the air to istate, from 2,000 miles away in JSydney, that the centre of the dis turbance was the eruption of the !South Son about 80 miles south west of Rabaul. Ships and aircraft diverted to this area reported that there was no sign of volcanic iactivity in the area.

He said that what Rabaul needed most of all was for the Adminis tration to hurry on with the build ing of permanent homes for the people, and for the escape routes to be sealed.

Mr. S. Lonergan, Government Secretary, said that “action will be taken to replace all Administration houses as soon as possible” and that Tunnel Hill and Namanula roads will shortly be sealed. He also read a statement from the Ad ministration Senior Geologist, Mr.

J. Thomson, who claimed that he had been mis-reported in the South Pacific Post.

Mr. Thomson And The

Reporters

On the evening of May 1, fol lowing a headline “Rabaul Shake Alarms Government Expert” that appeared earlier in the day in the local Port Moresby paper, Mr. J.

Thomson issued a statement over 9PA denying that there was any cause for alarm, and stated that earth tremors of similar origin but varying strength occurred through out the world every few minutes, that it was estimated that severe earthquakes which would be catas trophic in populated areas, oc curred on an average once a fort night, and that most of them originated in a broad zone of crustal instability which roughly encircled the Pacific Ocean.

But Mr. Thomson was not to be permitted to get out of it as easily as that. In the Sydney Morning Herald of May 5 (and this, thanks to Skymaster service is on sale in Port Moresby by 10 a.m. the same morning) there was a headline thus: “Rabaul Sits on a Powder Barrel”.

The story beneath said that in Mr. Thomson’s opinion Rabaul was sitting on a gun-powder barrel—that the tremor they had had was tectonic and similar to those that had caused the world’s greatest earthquake tragedies. He said that Federal Cabinet had decided last June to let Rabaul remain where it

was despite the pleadings of the former Administrator, Mr. J. K.

Murray. He said (reportedly) that there was absolutely no limiit to the damage such a tremor can do —that Rabaul could be destroyed by other tectonic tremors or by a volcano and was therefore in a very un happy position.

This was dated Port Moresby, Monday (4th). (Over)

Rabaul’S Amazing Roads

NOTHING can be done about Rabaul’s earthquakes; but a great deal can be done about the living conditions of residents, and in this regard, the statement from Mr.

Lonergan that temporary Ad ministration houses will be replaced “as soon as possible” will be received with some scepticism.

The roads in Rabaul are another disgrace particularly the main escape route over Tunnel Hill. No one but a civil engineer could safely comment on these roads but even to the lay eye there is something strange and even terrifying about the local thoroughfares. Except for a sealed strip in the middle of the town, all have been surfaced with pumice dust. This has the virtue of not going into a bog in heavy rain, but has also the disadvantage that it floats in water. In the recent very wet wet that is just what it has done—floated away in the heavy downpours until the so called roads are simply a net-work of gullies and chasms. Tunnel Hill road is the most extraordinary sight. This road was built by the Germans originally and the steep road at one time actually went through a tunnel —I believe that the tunnel was still there in 1920.

Sometime shortly afterwards the roof of the tunnel was removed and thus it remained—like a narrow cutting—until 1939. I cannot re

member any very great trouble with its surface, even after heavy rain, at that time. Now, however, it has been greatly widened —to two or three times the width it was in 1939 —and surfaced with pumice.

Down the sides of the road are now great gullies, maybe 10 or 12 feet deep in places, that storm water has torn out for itself. When very heavy rain has fallen these gullies

extend across the road and all traffic is held up until repairs can be made.

There no doubt is an engineering solution to the problem of Tunnel Hill—possibly sealing the surface would be sufficient —but Rabaul’s present roadmakers, who seem more than reluctant over the matter of culverts and drainage, have not

found it yet.

JT.

The Port Moresby Softball Association, at an enjoyable dance in April, presented rizes won in a happy and successful season. TOP LEFT.—Mr. E. Kriewaldt, Sehior, resents the Kriewaldt Cup to Mrs. N. Andrews, captain of Comworks, the winning team [?] the season. TOP RIGHT.—The President of the Association, Mr. VV. Morrissey, [?]resents the President’s Cup to “the best and fairest player’’—Miss M. Mapleback, of Com [?]orks. The large group shows the winners (Comworks Team)—Left to right—BACK OW: Misses L. Hamilton, J. Kerr, Mrs. N. Andrews, N. Mapleback. M. Day, P. Blazey.

RONT ROW; Miss P. Coonan, Mr. J. Dowsett (coach), Miss D. May, Mr. K. Croker Umpire), Miss M. Ponsonby.