STOCK-PILE OF FOOD

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30128, 11 May 1963, Page 13

STOCK-PILE OF FOOD

Preparations For Disaster

(N.Z. Press Association)

AUCKLAND. May 10

Auckland is one bf 12 North Island centres where food, clothing, medical and firet-a-d equipment have been stock-piled for use in the event of a national disaster.

A civil defence scheme ■organised by the Seventh Day Adventist Church 18 months ago also has a corps of truck owner-drivers <.n call for ambulance and other emergency services. Each of the 11 Adventist churches in the Auckland metropolitan area has taken part in the scheme under the direction of the Federation of Welfare Services. Foodstuffs in store. Pastor W. A. Coates, the welfare secretary, said, today, included mainly canned vegetables, spreads and milk Clothing had been acquired by door-to-door collections.

Mr Coates said the North Island had been zoned for civil defence purposes and stock-piles had als> been set up at Hamilton, Whangarei, Dargaville, Kaitaia, Tauranga, Rotorua, Gisborne, New Plymouth, Hastings, Palmerston North and Wellington. z A similar scheme existed in the South Island.

In Auckland today. Pastor C. E. Gunther, of Washington, world director of the church's welfare work, said North America and Canada had been stock-piling for the last eight years. Many private homes had their own supplies stored away. Pastor Gunther is in New Zealand for 10 days in the course of a South Pacific tour organising welfare and civil defence measures. An overseas relief programme, he said. was an important adjunct of the work of his organisation: