Aid For Flood Victims
(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) WASHINGTON, March 27.
The United States will provide up to 10,000 dollars worth of emergency relief aid for victims of the floods on the main Fijian island of Viti Levu, the State Department has announced.
The United States Consul in Suva (Mr G. Gray) has been authorised to offer this aid in helping to meet the request of the local government for assistance.
The State Department made the announcement of United States relief a day after it had received reports from the consul of the flood damage. A Press Association message from Wellington says that C.0.R.5.0. yesterday cabled £5OO to Suva for the relief of homeless flood victims.
Tomorrow a R.N.Z.A.F. aircraft will carry several tons of milk powder to Fiji to feed children there. C.0.R.5.0. will also send six bales of used clothing on the first available transport. The organisation’s national secretary (the Rev. H. C. Dixon) said this evening the clothing gift was made possible by the generous response in Auckland and Hamilton to the appeal for clothing for the victims of the Opotiki floods. It had
been so overwhelming there had been four large truckloads left over. Mr Dixon said that even in normal times the situation for many Fijians on low incomes was grim. Their poverty was aggravated by unemployment. The present disaster could result in a serious food shortage for several weeks or even months until gardens and fields were re-established.
Supplies of special foodstuffs, including milk powder and corned beef, and quantities of blankets and clothing are scheduled to arrive in Fiji in the Matua tomorrow morning.
Auckland fruit importers, commenting on reports that banana plantations had been hard hit by the floods, said it would be two or three weeks before the full extent of the damage would be known.
In the past such disasters had resulted in banana shortages in New Zealand. There would, however, be some supplies available from Samoa and Tonga.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30401, 28 March 1964, Page 3
Word Count
327Aid For Flood Victims Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30401, 28 March 1964, Page 3
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