RUINED TOWNS ASSISTANCE NEEDED

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 83, 9 April 1931, Page 12

RUINED TOWNS

ASSISTANCE NEEDED

GREATEST RELIEF WORK

LABOUK AND MONEY

(By "X.") The spectacular aspect of the Hawkes Bay earthquake is at an end. There remains the cold fact that a great area of country, in which are located two large towns, Napier and Hastings, a small farming centre, Wairoa, the townships of Waipawa and Waipukurau, a number of smaller townships, hundreds of farms and farmhouses, very many miles of road and many miles of railway construction, has bean . smashed and battered by the most disastrous earthquake in the history of this country. Because the ruin of Napier and the lesser rjiiu of Hastings were'outstanding, New Zealand has lost sight of the fact, or has never realised it, that the damage to these towns, terrible though it was, is but a part of the total damage. It is not from one visit to Huwkcs Bay that one gathers tho picture as a whole. On the day after the earthquake the position was terrible, one town's business area in absolute ruin, another town badly smashed but happily not fire-ravaged, Wairoa, Waipaw.i, and Waipukurau equally battered in individual buildings, lives lost and some hundreds injured, harbour works damaged to tho extent of thousands of pounds and so changed that a largely changed policy may bo determined upon, the Westshore road ruined by great subsidences and fissures, tho railway parallel to this road twisted and hanging over great gaps whore the formation had slumped away —spectacular enough and terrible enough in all conscience, but not the whole story by any means. DAMAGE IN THE COUNTRY. The same damage that is found in town buildings is repeated along the length of the coastal bolt past "Wairoa and on towards Gisborne (north of Napier tho home-smashing was apparently worse), the Westshoro road slumping ami fissuring is to be found in one form and another on both mam and subsidiary roads to the north and inland for fifteen or twenty miles, the railway is impossible for a jigger over many miles, embankments have slumped, tunnel mouths are blocked, bridges are down or seriously wrecked, the northern Hawkes Bay farmer has suffered land losses and depreciation which in the aggregate must mean a huge amount for a district, already hard hit by hard prices and hard drought, and there is still .the winter ahead and the certainty of bad troubles an roads in country subject to winter slips. It is doubtful whether even Hawkes Bay people realise, the full weight of the earthquake catastrophe- at such a period in New Zealand's history as this. Napier, with the wreck of tho business area barely touched, took an Easter vacation from Thursday midday till Wednesday morning. A MOUNTAIN OF WORK. A little has boon done, but there is a mountain of work untouched. Hastings, suffering less, launched out immediately and energetically upon cleaning up the wreckage, and largely that nrst work 5s completed. Napier made a splendid start, but has,, for financial reasons, called a halt. Tho smaller townships just turned to on their smaller tasks, and have done well. All roads are'open, but are far from being restored to order, but no train has run, nor can run for long, on tho lino north of Napier. It is of primest importance that the wrej£ of tho earthquake, on a coastal belt of 70 miles, should be cleared in the shortest possible time. Is Hawkes Bay labour, given even adequate finance, able to carry out this Suggestions mado to Hawkes Bay people that that was the position were not received in friendly fashion. Hawkes Bay had suffered, they replied, and outsiders' should be kept out so that Hawkes Bay workmen, should not suffer further through unemployment. Questions whether there would be finance sufficient for the payment of full rates" on restoration work wore coldly answered. There was a principle at stake, they replied: it was up to New Zealand. But Napier is not being quickly clpared of fired ruins; Hastings, Wairoa, Waipawa, and Waipukurau are not whole towns; there is work to be done in every home, on "every farm; bridges are still down; the Public Works Department has no more than opened country roads; tho railway remains a track along whiclj one cannot safely walk. There is vastly more work in Hawkes Bay than Hawkes Bay people can accomplish. There is work enough in Hawkes Bay to absorb all the unemployed in New Zealand while the depression lasts. UNEMPLOYED RELIEF. For over a year now municipalities have been almost at their wits' end to find work for the unemployed. Under the latest plan of the Unemployment Board they were practically relieved of financial obligations on certain classes of relief works, on parks, reserves, and works which ordinarily would not be included in the estimates, in short — and in fact, whether intended or not— works which were not really necessary, let alone so urgent as to warrant their prosecution in difficult years. Under that new plan Wellington, for instance, was able to institute now works and accept tho present of handsome reserves from tho Government to tho city, but there is a limit to the acceptance of even such handsome gifts. Whore are the next 'works to be found in towns so extremely fortunate when compared with the smashed, lands and towns and settlements of Hawkes Bay. If restoration is to be made rapidly, so that country and town, road and railway, can return to tho business of re-building Now Zealand's prosperity, Hawkes Bay must receive help in labour as well as in money. Every other part of the Dominion is faced with'the gloomy prospect of a lengthening list of unemployed for whom there is no useful work at hand, and thcro is not a municipality which would not welcome relief and gladly support a policy which would ensure that the Government's money—which means the people's money —is spent, not upon works too unimportant to be included in the estimates, but upon work , of urgent and vital importance. That work has been waiting in Hawkes Bay, town and country, for two months. MONEY IN HAWKES BAY. There is another aspect: money which is paid out to workers in Hawkes Bay will circulate in Hawkes Bay. For a long time to come the whole of that district will pay out and pay out, and relief guilds bo readily contributed by tho people of the Dominion and Government relief will not meet that steady drain. If 9s per day is to be the rate of pay for single men engaged on unnecessary relief works, why not have a chiingi) of policy, and pay !>s to unskilled single workers, housed in camps in the earthquake area and engaged ou the most vital and urgent work which has ever faced this country? The workers' would havo tho satisfaction of doing work o£ value, the money of the people of New Zealand would be spent to reap a real return, Hawkes