TOO QUIET ON EARTHQUAKE FRONT!"

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 50, 28 February 1931, Page 8

TOO QUIET ON EARTHQUAKE FRONT!"

There seems to be some impression in the earthquake area that the Government is not taking a firm grip of the situation. It is suggested that if Hawkes Bay says to the Government, "What are you going to do?" and if the Government replies, "What do you want us to do?" and if nothing else happens quickly, the net result will be deadlock. It is true that a building design investigation has been set up, but does it follow that all business building (as apart from dwellings) in both, Napier and Hastings- must be delayed until the unknown lime when the Government's investigation shall yield reports and regulations? . A Government statement on these points, and on the external loan issue raised by Archbishop Averill, might dispel at once the impression and the suggestion outlined above; if so, well and good. But some authoritative reassurance is certainly needed, and, as the Archbishop has pointed out, the moral factor is important when a lot of people—some of whom may be financial —are waiting for a lead, in impatient idleness. Is it advisable that some authority should be set up with power to approve permanent building plans for certain properties on wide streets, in anticipation of the completion of the building design investigation? Hastings business area and Napier business area do not necessarily present the same townreplanning problem. If a good many owners are held up by finance, orhy narrow street conditions, or by title complications, or by other _ cause, shall other owners, not so disqualified, mark time, or shall they be encouraged to give the principle of reconstruction a tangible significance?