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Editorial

There is more on the AGM below but the newly elected committee has a striking
resemblance to the old committee.

President Colin Ryder
Vice President Ken Chin
South Island VP Eric Sutton
Auckland VP Erica Mulder
Treasurer Ian Butcher
Newsletter Editor David Smith (subject to membership support with miNiZ)
Secretary Vacant
Supplies Officer Erica Mulder
Publicity Officer Peter Bonkovich

Notice that I am editor again but with an important condition. I am meant to be editor,
which means tidying up and publishing the articles sent to me by other members. I am fed
up of either writing all of miNiZ myself or with just the odd article from other members. I
took the job on with everyone at the AGM agreeing to write an article for miNiZ in the next
twelve months. So far I have had one article, from Erica Mulder, although the Christchurch
members at the meeting do have a reasonable excuse! I have also had lots of snippets of
information and photos from other collectors (see This ‘N That). Lack of articles means
that this miNiZ is three to four months late. Get used to it unless you all contribute!

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AGM & EARTHQUAKE
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EARTHQUAKEE
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H
nd
The cover says it all. This is Robin Mellish’s bottle room on Tuesday 22 February. This
was the second earthquake in Christchurch in 6 months. The first did some damage but
this one was truly destructive.
The one last September was a 7.1 on the Richter scale. It was almost identical in size,
depth (33km) and distance (30km) from the city centre as the Haiti earthquake earlier last
year. The Haiti quake killed about 220,000 people and destroyed Port au Prince. Due to
the time it struck, 4.30 in the morning, and New Zealand’s very stringent building codes,
the September Christchurch quake killed nobody and only seriously injured three people.
There was building (and bottle collection) damage but it was not too serious.
The February quake (technically an aftershock) struck at just before 1.00pm on a Tuesday
lunchtime. It was only a 6.3 quake so, in theory, it should not have been the more
destructive one. However it was an 8km (5 mile) tear only 1 – 2 km below the Port Hills
east of the city centre. The shock wave was focused directly at the city centre. I am sure
that you have all seen the images on TV. When you see the destruction we were lucky to
escape with ‘only’ 181 deaths.

The city is now one of two halves. The city centre and eastern suburbs were badly affected