Johny.
My wife worked at the Farmers for two years in the fifties, we used to take our kids there to see shows on the upper floor they saw the Chip Monks there. Every Christmas time Farmers had a big parade down Queen street. As for earthquakes, we lived in Christchurch for twelve months, went back to Auckland,got sick of the bed moving like it was on a sea, even in Auckland there were tremors not only in the bed LoL
Des