Two 1942 Wairarapa earthquakes shook the lower North Island of New Zealand on 24 June and 2 August.

At 11.16 pm, a small and sharp but brief earthquake of magnitude 7.2 Ms  (Mw  6.9–7.2) shook a wide area in the lower North Island from Eketāhuna to Masterton, Featherston, and Wellington; and was noticed from Auckland to near Dunedin.

The mayor Thomas Jordan declared a state of emergency and got troops to patrol the town.

[7] Twenty thousand chimneys fell in Wellington and there was one death in Kelburn, where a 70-year old retired chemist, Hedley Victor Evens, was killed by coal gas from a fractured pipe.

[9] Another shock in the area struck on 2 August at 12.34 pm, preceded by a foreshock on the late afternoon of the 1st.

[14] In Masterton many buildings were badly damaged by the first quake; the fire station, the Bank of New Zealand, several shops, and St Matthews Church (which was later blown up by the Army).

[24][25] A Wellington Hospital nurse was lucky to be on night duty as a chimney crashed onto her bed.