The NZ Police Gazettes (Wellington series) have now been digitised and are available for viewing on the Archway website.  While these are the National Headquarters (Wellington) set, they include occurrences from all over New Zealand.

http://archives.govt.nz/sites/default/files/Police_Gazettes.pdf

Eighty-six years ago today on the 3rd of February 1931 at 10.47 am, New Zealand’s deadliest earthquake struck the Hawkes Bay. Centered 15kms north of Napier, it lasted for two and a half minutes and measured magnitude 7.8. Napier was levelled and at least 258 people were killed.

Showing central Napier in ruins after the 1931 earthquake  Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 248-11

Thirteen-year-old Cecil O’Halloran and her sister Joy lived with their parents, Ivy and Kevin, on the Napier hills, in Brewster Street. Their house was built by Ivy’s builder father, Thomas Bailey, as a wedding present for his daughter.

When the earthquake struck, Ivy was at home. It was fortunate she'd just left the laundry for the kitchen as the only damage to the house was from the chimney crumbling down on to it.
Auckland Libraries Sir George Grey Special Collections has digitised a view of the city taken before and after the earthquake. The house that Thomas built for Ivy and Kevin is in the foreground, second house from the right in the photos below. In the first one you can see it has a chimney, which has gone in the second photo.

Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19310311-49-1

Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19310311-49-2

Meanwhile, Cecil and Joy were at school. At 13, Cecil was a bit too old to be on a see-saw but she was playing that game where you try to bounce the other girl off. To her indignation, Cecil was roughly thrown to the ground, soon realising that it wasn’t her playmate’s doing as the ground undulated beneath her. Her convent school survived pretty much intact but the nuns were sure it was more than an earthquake when they raced to the convent’s graveyard crying, 'Armageddon'! The girls had to camp overnight at school and it wasn’t until the next day, when her parents came to collect her, that Cecil realised that they too were okay.

Cecil eventually died in her eighties from Alzheimer’s but the Napier earthquake was one memory that lasted with her, almost to the end.

Bridget

humorous illustrations of animals which reminded me of the pictures in books I read as a young child.  Consequently, this got me thinking about the type of books I read that children probably don’t read these days and how these and the household goods we had would be completely foreign to children now so we should be including these in anything we write about our past.
Therefore, I’m going to indulge myself and here are some of the books I read (4-7 years)–some you may know but I hope it reminds you of some of your favourite books from childhood. 
Books by Willy Schermelé. In fact, a search on the internet shows that I had several books by this author–Teddy Tar in Fairyland, Tubby and Tootsie, Winkie and Brownie Bright Eyes, Winkie and Wolly Wopsie.  Turns out that these are now all collectible so must check the condition of my copies.


I also enjoyed the Angus series about a Scottish terrier
Another favourite about a dog was Harry who destroyed a jersey with roses on it in one book and turned from a white dog with black spots to a black dog with white spots in Harry the Dirty Dog. I also enjoyed the Orlando series. Several French books I loved were the Jeanne-Marie series, the Happy Lion, series and who could forget Madeline?

Finally, a couple of stories set in China that I enjoyed were -


I hope this may have triggered memories of books read to you, or by you, as a young child.

Marie
Central Research Centre