A NIGHT OF TERROR - THE 1942 EARTHQUAKE

Major earthquakes have been a prominent feature of living in Wairarapa for almost as long as pakeha has lived in the area. The first whalers and sealers were upset by earthquakes in the early 1840s, and the first farmers on the plains were rocked by the major 1848 shake.

The Small Farms Association pioneers in the first inland towns in New Zealand, Greytown and Masterton, experienced an even worse earthquake. The shake of 23 January 1855 was the largest shock ever experienced in New Zealand, the landscape of Wellington and Wairarapa being re–shaped dramatically in places. The settlers in the small townships, then on their land for less than a year, spent a terrified night together as the earth heaved under their feet.

The land seemed to have settled following the big quake. Although the region was rocked with minor quakes it wasn't until the new century that major damage was caused to Masterton, and the town suffered its first earthquake fatality.

In 1904 the recently constructed Masterton Post Office was cracked in a quake, and locals expressed the opinion that the building was not safe. Their fears were to be borne out on 12 April 1913, when another earthquake shook the town. Among those fleeing from the Post Office was a young man, Te Hone Ngawhiro. He was struck by a piece concrete decoration falling from the parapets of the building and killed.

The Wairarapa felt the shake that destroyed Napier in February 1931, but it wasn't until the 1934 Pahiatua shake that Masterton's buildings suffered any major effects. That shake damaged much of the ornamentation on the brick and concrete buildings in the centre of town, and for weeks Queen Street was home to extensive scaffolding. Fortunately the shake occurred at 11.50 p.m., when the town was deserted, so there were no injuries.

By June 1942 earthquakes were the last thing on most people's minds.

The country was at war, and many households had their men, fathers, sons and brothers, either fighting overseas, or in camps in New Zealand. Many local men were in camps in Wairarapa - soldiers were camped at Carterton, at the Opaki racecourse and at Solway Showgrounds.

The whole district was shaken by a sharp earthquake at 8.17 p.m. One young soldier, in Masterton on leave from the Carterton camp, was soaking in a hot bath at his grandmother's house. He was terrified as the water sloshed around the bath. He was torn between quickly getting out of the bath, (and risking his grandmother seeing him) or riding the shock out in the water. He chose the latter. When he arrived back at camp, and was safely in his tent with his comrades, he shared his experience with his fellow soldiers. As they lay waiting for sleep they laughed at his expense.

Just after eleven he felt himself being woken as he was thrown out of his bed. Thinking his tent mates had played a joke on him, he became angry and tried to see who was tipping him out of bed. As he tried to stand on the rocking and rolling earth he realised this was not a practical joke. This was the real thing.

It was 11.16, and the whole Wairarapa district was being shaken awake. The earth was growling and rumbling, and in the town the sky was lit by the flashes of light coming from high–tension wires as they arced and snapped. Inside houses, furniture was rolling around rooms, and bric-a-brac of all kinds was being thrown from walls and mantelpieces to be smashed on the floor.

Masterton was the worst affected town, the epicentre of the shake being at nearby Tauweru. Much of the central business area was badly damaged in the shake. J.V. Gordon's chemist shop, situated on the corner of Bannister and Queen Streets and identifiable by its distinctive rounded tower, was severely damaged, debris littering the corner. The whole front of the shop occupied by Miss Ninnes, in Queen Street, fell off the building, exposing not just the store below but also the living quarters above. The large water tower behind the WFCA in Queen Street collapsed in a torrent of water and bricks. The chapel attached to the side of St Matthews Church fell in, and many parapets and verandahs were damaged.

The soldiers from the nearby camps were quickly called out for guard duty and Queen Street was cordoned off, from King Street to Worksop Road. Borough Council employees checked through buildings thought to have been occupied that night, to ensure that no-one was lying injured. The following morning the staff were out on the streets again, sweeping up the glass and rubble. Men were soon employed removing the portions of damaged buildings thought to be the most dangerous.

Similar activities were taking place in the other towns throughout Wairarapa. Eketahuna had been badly affected, and the Borough Council Chambers were badly cracked. In Carterton, the well-known Wakelin's Flour Mill was damaged, as was the Wairarapa A & P Society building in Memorial Square. Damage in Greytown was not just restricted to the shops in the centre of town. W.H. Day's shop lost its facade, but the earthquake also damaged the town's swimming baths, and a large monument to chief Tamahau Mahupuku, erected at Papawai marae. The southern-most towns, Martinborough and Featherston, were not so badly affected, but Pain and Kershaw's store in Martinborough was extensively damaged.

Some damage was consistent throughout the region. Many residents lost ornaments and pictures in the shake, and most families lost their stock of preserves and jam as pantry floors became strewn with pickles and relishes mixed up with glass shards. Chimneys fell in staggering numbers. There were an estimated 4,700 chimneys down in Wairarapa, over 1,000 in Masterton alone. Throughout the Wellington region 20,000 were estimated to have fallen. The cemeteries of the district were also devastated, each of them littered with fallen headstones and cracked monuments.

As the shocked population surveyed their damaged surroundings they were still being rocked by aftershocks, over 200 shocks being recorded between the first 8.17 p.m. shock and 7 a.m. the following morning. These shocks continued for months.

Cracks were clearly visible in many buildings in Queen Street, and the Army engineers were quickly called in to assist with the clean up. They pulled down the worst of the damaged masonry, and started the long job of cleaning up the debris from the street. The town centre was closed and guarded as the work went on.

Bricklayers from all parts of New Zealand were called in to assist repairing the many chimneys that were damaged. It is recorded that some soldiers, who had never laid hands on a brick before, answered the call, to escape their camps.

Although people had been allowed into town on the Friday following the shake, the local community leaders thinking it best for morale if things could be back to normal as soon as possible– it was after the weekend before most of the shops were passed as safe to re-open.

By the following Tuesday the Army decided it was time to demolish the badly damaged St Matthew's Church. A 16 pound charge was exploded by the engineers shortly after six. And nothing happened. A much heavier charge was placed in the building and exploded at 8.15. The explosion was heard all over town and buildings in the vicinity of the church rocked with the force of the blast, and some windows were blown in. People living near the church complained they sustained more damage to their houses in the demolition of the church then they did in the earthquake.

The quakes hadn't finished either.

There was a large aftershock in early August, a shock that was said to have caused more damage in Eketahuna than the main shock in June. It also toppled many of the rebuilt chimneys in the district. Many of those chimneys were rebuilt again just in time to be toppled by yet another major aftershock in mid-December.

The legacy of the earthquakes of 1942 is plain in the main street of Masterton. Photographs from the 1930s show a street lined with ornamental buildings furnished with ornate decoration. The earthquakes destroyed over twenty brick buildings, over fifty other buildings required alteration and strengthening. In most cases the ornamentation was removed for safety reasons.

The Wairarapa Times-Age editorial of July 6, 1942, said: "There is a great deal to be done in safeguarding existing buildings and in setting the highest practicable standards in all buildings to be erected henceforth. It should be recognised that it was by a merciful dispensation that the recent earthquake occurred late at night as it did."