Fire-damaged properties examined

Press, 25 February 1987, Page 2

Fire-damaged properties examined

Fire-damaged properties in Oxford were examined yesterday by a committee of three which has been appointed to administer the $400,000 Government grant to fire victims.

Mr Grant McFadden, a senior advisory officer in the Ministry of Agriculture in Christchurch, Mr Michael Murchison, provincial president of North Canterbury Federated Farmers, and Mr Alan Bilbrough, of the farm advisory services department at Lincoln College, looked over the 12 affected properties and spoke to each of the farmers.

The chairman of the Oxford branch of Federated Farmers, Mr Lindsay McGrath, said the committee began its rounds about 8.30 a.m. and mainly looked at uninsurable items such as fencing, shelter-belts, regrassing, and feed supplement for stock. . Mr McGrath accompanied the men in the morning and introduced them to the farmers, and the senior farm advisory officer in the Ranglora branch of the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Norman Hart, was with them in the afternoon.

A briefing meeting of the committee and all the affected farmers was held in Oxford last evening, the three officers passing on their initial assessment and the farmers relaying their thoughts and queries. Mr McGrath said that the next step would be for each farmer to submit a plan of what needed to be done on his prppierty to bring it back to what it was before the fire. Appeal About $90,000 has been raised so far in the Oxford fire appeal. The Oxford County Clerk, Mr Kevin Felstead,, said the council would meet on Monday and a decision would be made’ then on who was going to administer this fund. He said there ,was still some money, to ,come in from a charity cricket match between the Canterbury rugby team and a Canterbury Promotion Council XI on Sunday and there had been some suggestion of an open-air concert in Oxfort) to raise additional funds.

The money from the appeal will mostly be used for replacing uninsurable items.