generally of a description hardly noticeable, but, occasionally at lesser or greater intervals, of a violent nature. It is in vain to disguise this truth; our country abounds with evidences of volcanic action which everywhere present themselves from the Trap Rocks of Stewart’s island, to the Three Kings of the North Cape, and proclaim its igneous origin. We may, therefore, correctly assert that the whole of the Colonists of New Zealand are interested in this matter; for, though some Provinces have, of late years, sustained no damage, yet they have been warned by the slight shocks they have already felt, that they are within the orbit of those mysterious and subterranean forces which have inflicted severe loss on their less fortunate fellow colonists in the other Provinces; and it behoves all to adapt their dwellings and other buildings to the country in which they live; for, though the earth does not sink or open and engulph the people, as it did at Lisbon or Jamaica, (on the contrary it appears to be undergoing a gradual upheaval in the neighbourhood of Wellington in a perceptible degree, it having been raised 2 feet during the recent earthquake) yet serious damage and even loss of life must be the result if this precaution in building is neglected.

The phenomenon of this country being in course of upheaval, is not confined to New Zealand. Norway, at this time, is being gradually upheaved at the rate of 4 feet in a century, and other places at a more rapid rate. The recent sudden upheaval of part of the Province of Wellington, there is good reason to believe is a very rare occurrence. No white man that we can learn of, has ever witnessed it before. One of the oldest inhabitants of Cook’s straits, Mr. John Guard, says “the last earthquake was the most violent one he ever knew in this country;” and he has lived in it for a period of twenty-two years, and he never before witnessed a perceptible rise of the land after the shock of an earthquake; but this ought not to make us less careful in the erection of buildings, for we must bear in mind that nothing will prevent this country from being rapidly peopled; its unrivalled climate, its vast natural capabilities and unlimited resources, are temptations too attractive to be resisted by enterprising Englishmen. It is a remarkable fact that the two most favored countries on earth in point of climate and soil, and almost insular in position—

Greece and Italy, with their renowned and magnificent capitals of Athens and Rome, where liberty, the arts and sciences and literature were nurtured, and where they flourished and were brought to perfection, which modern civilization is still proud to acknowledge as worthy of imitation; in fact the source of its own origin,—were and are new subject to earthquakes in comparison to which those in New Zealand sink into insignificance.

Subjoined is a list of some of them, and also a number of minor ones, which have occurred in England from a very early date.

A. D.

GREECE.

107 150 Cities swallowed up.

ITALY.

370 Nice destroyed.
1186 At Calabria, a city sunk in the sea.
1222 In Lombardy 200 lives lost.
1456 One in Naples, 40,000 people perished.
1688 Naples again, a third of the city destroyed.
1789 In Castello 30 houses swallowed up...100 destroyed.
1794 Near Naples, city of Torre del Greco nearly destroyed.
1832 In Calabria and Central Italy.

ENGLAND.

1076 One.
1089 One again.
1090 One.
1142 One felt at Lincoln.
1175 One felt at Oxenhall.
1179 One.
1185 One that overthrew the church of Lincoln and others.
1199 One in Somersetshire.
1247 One, a church thrown down at Glastonbury.
1248 One.
1249 One.
1250 One at St. Albans.
1551 One at Reigate, Croydon, Dorking, and Surry.
1571 One in Herefordshire which overthrew Kingston Church.
1574 One in Yorkshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, &c.
1586 One felt in London and Westminster, when part of St. Paul’s & the Temple Church fell, it was also felt at Sandwich, Dover, and Kent.
1583 In Dorsetshire, when it removed a considerable portion of ground.
1596 In Kent, where the hills became valleys filled with water.