Know your town

The badly damaged Chemist Shop and four of George Pain’s buildings. Note the fire blackened eaves.

While the most talked about earthquake is the 1942 Wairarapa Earthquake, which caused a great amount of damage around the district, it is by no means the only one. Nine quakes of around seven magnitude had been recorded in the preceding hundred years.

The first quake was recorded not long after the settlers arrived. Centred in Wanganui, the quake on 8th July 1843 measured 7.5. Another on 18th November 1846 measured 6.5. The next recorded was on 15th October 1848 and centred in Marlborough, this time measuring 7.1.

Then came the big one, centred south east of Wellington the 23rd January 1855 quake measured 8.1. This quake changed the landscape of both Wairarapa and Wellington as the shoreline was heaved up and moved thirteen metres sideways. Nine years later another big quake was experienced this time on 22nd February and measuring 7.5.

It must have been of some relief that no further large quakes occurred until 1904 when the Wairarapa Daily Times reported a ‘large quake’ with ‘some damage in Masterton, nothing in Martinborough as there are only a small number of wooden buildings in the town’.

The Murchison earthquake on 16th June 1929 and Napier earthquake of 2nd February 1931 were each 7.8 and strongly felt in Martinborough with breakages reported. As was the 7.6 Pahiatua quake.

In 1942 it was Wairarapa’s turn to be the centre of the destruction. At 8.14 in the evening of 24th June people were shaken by a moderate earthquake. The at 11.16 on the same night a 7.6 Richter scale quake struck. This centred at Tauweru 15kms east of Masterton at a depth of 15kms. The full force was felt on a line from Tauweru north and south to Martinborough.

In the afternoon of the 1st August a light quake was felt, then seven and a half hours later there was another 7 magnitude shake again centred on the Tauweru fault. This was followed by a 6 magnitude the next day, this described as having a swaying motion.

The damage to the Martinborough business area was extensive. George Pain’s buildings , five in total, along with the chemist, Pain and Kershaw on the corner, W.F.C. A. (now the wine services bottling plant) all had facades and walls damaged. The Power Board shop in Cork Street ha damage to the walls and eaves.

Approaches to bridges had slumped and there were numerous slips across roads making travel difficult.

Over 200 chimneys came down, rebuild work commenced but who would be first. A number of people thought that they should be. However it didn’t matter as the next lot of shakes took them down again – plus any loose material.

A list of brick and Ferro cement and cement block building in 1942 included: Town Hall, Catholic Church, White’s bakers, Campbell’s garage, W.F.C.A. NZ Bank, Ladies Rest Room, Power Board, Alf Lewin (now Providore), N.H. Thomas building, Anglican Hall, Martinborough High School, Plunket Rooms, Solicitor’s Office, ANZ Bank, Chemist, Geo Pain 5 Buildings, Pain and Kershaws, and a number of private homes.
Mate Higginson