PEOPLE OF NAPIER.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20862, 23 May 1933, Page 7

PEOPLE OF NAPIER.

ARCHBISHOP'S TRIBUTE. (PRBSS ASSOCJATXOJt. MHJSMUK.) NAPIER, May 22. Speaking at the opening of a new chapel at St. Mary's Church yesterday. Archbishop O'Shea paid a tribute to . the courage and fortitude of the Napier people in the reconstruction of the town after the earthquake. "A little more than two years ago," he said, "you were all involved in a terrible loss of life and property caused by the earthquake. That disaster brought all classes and all sections of the community together, and although we can never bring back the. valuable lives - sacrificed in the calamity a splendid spirit has been created, due no doubt to the sacrifice* made and the splendid response of the people in an emergency in spite of the world-wide depression. "Your city, rising from the ruins, will be far more beautiful than, before the destruction. The wonderful progress speaks volumes for the determination of the people. It is quite certain that in a few years' time the restoration, of the material loss will » be complete, and that all trace of the great disaster will be entirely obliterated. It - was my good fortune to visit San Francisco nine years after it had! been destroyed by earthquake, and by that time it had lost all signs of the calamity. A new and far more beautiful city had arisen front to* ruins. The signs are that'this will be the case with Napier, even before nine years have elapseo, and that the people r of Napier will show the same courage. determination, and fortitude as the people of San Francisco."