TOWN'S EXISTENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 157, 5 July 1937, Page 8

TOWN'S EXISTENCE.

CONCERN IN HIKURANGI.

EMERGENCY ACTION PEANNED

(By Telegraph—Own Correspondent.)

WHANGAREI, this toy,

As a result of last week's flood the existence of Hikurangi is threatened. More serious than the loss of property, goods and household effects is the decision to close the Hikurangi Coal Company's mine.

An emergency meeting of the businessmen and representatives of the Town Board was held last night, when it was decided to send a deputation to Wellington to ask the Government for assistance.

Mr. R. Nesbitt, chairman of the Town Board, who presided, said that the district was now facing the effects of one of the greatest disasters that had ever visited Hikurangi, and everyone was suffering either directly or indirectly as a result *>f the damage done. The head of the Hikurangi Coal Company, Mr. It'. J. Stevens, he. said, had informed him that the mine was. now definitely finished. Mr. Nesbitt said he had asked Mr. Stevens if there was no hope at all, and Mr. Stevens had answered that they could not ask the Government for any further assistance, and that the company itself was unable to meet the cost of de-watering the mine, and therefore the company s qperations would cease. Mr. Stevens, however, had said that he would go to Wellington on Tuesday and lay the facts before the Government. Personally, he continued, he would like to see the Government take over the mine and develop it. « The directors of the company had told him that they could not conscientiously ask the shareholders to put any more money into the undertaking. After a long discussion it was decided that Messrs. Nesbitt, McDonald and Cochrane (an experienced miner) be requested to visit Wellington to lay the facts of the recent disaster before the Government and seek assistance.