The whole of the.Hawkes Bay. district was affected in varying
degrees. Such an earthquake cannot indeed be compared. with the Messina earthquake in which eighty thousand lives were lost and still less with the Japanese earthquake in which , one hundred and fOrty 'thousand were lost, but the people of Hawkes. Bay have not been spared anything in the way of terror and horror, and the impression made on the Dominion is all the deeper because it has disturbed the. popular sense of security. The Commander of the ` Veronica,'. who improvised a salvage service in Napier, reported that it was impoSsible to check the numerous fires which broke out, as the water service had failed. Relief ships have been sent from Auckland. The casualtiessuch is the confusion- have not yet been estimated, but it is feared that there are several hundreds of dead and the number of injured is, of course, Very much greatei'.. The stories of heroism in the work of rescue. are innum-erable, and one reads with pride not only of these but of the self-possession and fortitude of the whole population. As the sanitary system of Napier has been shattered the •eVaeuation of the town has been ordered.
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