Unperturbed Rabaul gets a shake-up

Prom a Rabaul correspondent Earth tremors are frequently felt in the Gazelle Peninsula area of New Britain and are generally accepted as part of every day life, but in August the whole area was rocked by a series of earthquakes which caused damage of more than $200,000.

Worst hit were the Catholic Mission’s Kabaleo Teachers’ Col lege, near Kokopo, where about $55,000 worth of damage was done and the Vunapau Catholic Mission church, which was damaged beyond repair.

were first felt at 3 a.m.

A on August 14 and continued throughout the early morning. The quake was strength six on the Richter scale—which made it very severe.

The disturbance was not of volcanic origin. It was the result of movements deep in the earth’s crust, and was quite different from that associated with volcanic activity. According to Mr. A. Renwick, senior resident geologist in Papua-New Guinea, many earthquakes occur in areas where there is no volcanic activity at all.

Widespread damage

Damage from the earthquake was widespread. Although the Roman Catholic Mission was the main suf ferer, Administration-owned property

was damaged, villages throughout the area lost buildings and many water tanks, and extensive damage was reported from various plantations.

The walls of buildings on the northern top of New Britain bulged as though they were pushed from within as the area was wracked by the tremors.

The busy highway between Rabaul and Kokopo, on the opposite side of Simpson Harbour to Rabaul, was cut in five places by landslides over a one and a half mile area. The road was closed for three days.

Many of the buildings at the Kabaleo Training College were knocked from their concrete founda tions, and roofs were left at crazy angles.

Inside the college’s kitchen huge iron stoves were wrenched from their

foundations. Every piece of crocke] the college owned was broken.

In the classrooms blackboard were hurled to the floor, bench overturned and the floor was sea tered with broken glass and book

Statues smashed

In the school chapel every bene was overturned and every stati smashed. In the dormitories, woode beds were thrown across the root and wardrobes tumbled to the floo Concrete flooring in the batl rooms opened up to reveal fissun and sinks were pulled from the mountings and dashed to the floo Students fled from the dormitorh at the college as the buildings co lapsed around them.

Later, the ground in front of th wrecked buildings was covered wit bags, suitcases, cardboard carton and woven baskets, which held th belongings of the 81 mission teache trainees. The young students in groups under umbrellas whid shaded them from the sun. The were later moved to Vunapope.

The earthquake struck the day afte the first anniversary of the openin;

This is some of the damage caused by the earthquake in the Rab area m August. At left, inside a house on Rainau Plantation, occupi[?] by Mr. and Mrs. Binnie, an interior wall has collapsed and concre[?] has crumbled. The house was so badly damaged it might have to rebuilt. Above, this is what happened to Burns Philp's old store Kokopo, now owned by the Vunapope Mission.

Photographs: Rabaul Photograph

the college, which will now have be demolished and completely milt.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop Rabaul, Archbishop Hoehne, who scribed the tremors as the most rere he had experienced during a igthy term in New Britain, has ced the Administration to grant llar-for-dollar assistance to repair ildings. Rebuilding would take )re than a year.

Only a few minor injuries sustained ring the quake were reported.

During the disturbance—l 7 tremors :re counted—the community in neral went about its normal tivities without undue disruption.

The District Commissioner for East ;w Britain, Mr. Harrv West, after imating the extent of the damage 5200.000 said he could see no rtification for declaring Kokopo a >aster area.

In individual cases of hardship ase involved could apply to the Iministration for assistance.

See "Rabaul's fearsome night of the exploding volcanoes' 7 , p. 81.