Christchurch Earthquake Book Includes Unique Story of the 1929 Murchison Earthquake

The following is an extract from the life story of Robert Percy Hughes who lived in the Murchison area at the time of the 7.8 magnitude quake in 1929. The full account is contained in Magnitude 7.1 & 6.3.

Gradually we investigated the other homes and in some we had a herculean task of cleaning jams and pickles, intermixed with glass, off the floors as the pantries had spilled their shelves. What a heart-break. One home had a piano and apparently it was left with the cover up. Fowls had been roosting on the piano and their droppings were all over the keys. All this was cleaned up, along with floors, using oceans of boiling water that we boiled up in the coppers which the homes were equipped with. The woman was never told what a mess her piano had been subjected to. What with fowls living in the houses, dogs, cats and even pigs found their way in as holes had been smashed with falling chimneys. Food had been hastily left as the folk decamped, never expecting in lots of cases, to return. No doubt the pigs smelt food and invaded the premises. We had quite a job, and seeing we had decreed we were not returning, did our best to make the places habitable should folk return.