Relief Committees In South Floods

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31658, 19 April 1968, Page 22

Relief Committees In South Floods

(New Zealand Press Association) INVERCARGILL, April 18. Arrangements are to be made to form two relief committees in the Mataura Valley and West Otago districts affected by the floods, the Minister of Agriculture and member of Parliament for Wallace (Mr Taiboys) said after visiting part of the area today.

The committees, one centred at Gore, the other to represent the lower Mataura Valley, will put forward recommendations for Govern-ment-financed relief and will help organise clearance of debris left by the floods, Mr Taiboys said. Mr Taiboys said after his return to Invercargill that the standard forms of flood relief were transport subsidies on hay, livestock and re-grassing, and guaranteed bank overdrafts. “I am also hopeful that the committees will be able to help farmers with the ‘small islands' of flood-borne debris left on farms as the water has receded,” he said. Mr Taiboys said he had found no evidence to back up suggestions of heavy stock losses during the floods. "However, I am aware that losses on some individual

farms have been serious; the loss of 100 sheep is a heavy blow to a farmer,” he said.