While trapped in the rubble, James would call out until he was exhausted and then fall asleep. When he awoke he would again call out for help.
Upon his sixth time of calling out, he was heard by a policeman. The constable reported this at the police station and a grave-digging squad on Park Island was removed to the site. After half an hour's digging James was released. He had survived by keeping his face buried in a kapok mattress.
He was said to be in a "delirious and excited condition", but apart from some bruises was unharmed.
James upon his rescue said the worst part of his ordeal was the thirst. "There were times when I could have done with a gallon of beer."
Doctors and nurses were said to be astonished at his vitality and amazing recovery. Since being in hospital following his rescue, he had spent his time eating, drinking and sleeping.
The next month he was transferred to Dannevirke Hospital suffering from "senile decay" and passed away there aged 94, on November 7. It was said he had no relatives in New Zealand.
Hastings' death toll from the 1931 earthquake was significantly less than Napier's by some 65 people, in part due to Hastings having fewer catastrophic building fires. A man who was working in the Hastings CBD in 1931 told me in 2006 that on the afternoon of the earthquake, trapped people could be heard yelling for help.
The biggest loss of life in Hastings was in Roachs department store on the corner of King and Heretaunga streets (where Farmers is now). Seventeen people perished – many of them young girls who worked there. Fire and smoke killed any trapped survivors before they could be rescued.
One lady I interviewed in 2006 was Frances Eves (nee Powell). Francis told me of her miraculous escape at Roachs.
She had just served a lady who had purchased a pair of gloves. As she was writing a sales docket the earthquake struck. She only had the time to utter the word "earthquake" before she was thrown face down into the passageway at the end of the counter. As she was falling, she looked up to see the whole of the top floor coming down on her. She was knocked unconscious temporarily, before coming to, struggling for breath in the dust filled air.
In complete darkness, Frances crawled inch by inch to reach the passage area. When she could stand up, she was on bricks and concrete, but still trapped underneath the ruins. Climbing up on the bricks, she saw a ray of light, which she moved towards. It was a gap that would be her escape route.
On her way out she passed the lifeless body of a friend who worked at another department, buried up to her head. Gordon Roach was standing on what had been the roof and pulled Frances through the opening.
Many of the shop assistants that had escaped their collapsed places of work were given jobs outside of Hawke's Bay.
One told me she was given work on the top floor of a department store in Wellington. It was an uneasy time for her, and most of the time she had a sense of panic or dread that this building too would collapse, and this time there would be no escape.
*Limited, signed copies of Michael Fowler's Historic Hawke's Bay book are available from the Hastings Community Art Centre, Russell St South, Hastings for $65.
*Michael Fowler is taking Art Deco and 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake tours around the Hastings CBD during Art Deco Festival from February 13 to 16. Book at online iticket or the Art Deco Centre in Tennyson St.
