Houses in danger 'had to remain’

Press, 26 February 1980, Page 13

Houses in danger 'had to remain’

f'PA Dunedin F Houses obviously in danger before the Abbotsford slip gcould not be moved to safety 'because compensation could not be paid until they were severely damaged, a consulting engineer said. Mr D. G. Cox, a consulting engineer with Brickell, Moss, and Hill, a firm involved in investigations for the Earthquake and War Damage Commission, was giving evidence at the Cornemission, of Inquiry into the slip. / “It seems incredible that Jwhile some houses could been shifted economic- —

alty at that stage (late in July), legislative restrictions meant they had to remain and suffer progressive damage,” he said.

Some of the houses involved were virtually undamaged and uncracked but he believed they would inevitably have suffered damage regardless of the way the slip eventually went. However, the Earthquake and War Damage Act, and interpretations of it supplied by commission personnel, mean the houses could not be moved to safety because the owners would not be assured of compensation.