LOCAL SCHEMES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 146, 21 June 1940, Page 8

LOCAL SCHEMES

TO MEET EMERGENCY

"SOUND ORGANISATION"

For some time past the Government has recognised the necessity for a Dominion-wide organisation for the control in any locality of all essential services when these have been suspended or dislocated by a natural disaster or by enemy action. In a report which he presented to the House of Representatives last night, the Minister of Internal Affairs (ihe Hon. W. E. Parry) said that there was every evidence that local authorities were facing their responsibilities and were forming or had formed adequate organisations to cope with whatever local emergency conditions might arise. It was clear that should a calamity occur in any district there would be a sound organisation to control essential services and look after the well-being of the people until normal conditions were restored.

Each local scheme, said the Minister, had been framed on the general basis of the scheme formulated by the Government, which was based on the principle that in each locality the local authority exercising territorial jurisdiction was responsible for the setting up of an organisation for action in an emergency. The co-operation and assistance of the appropriate Government Departments were made available for this purpose, and local authorities had fully accepted the assistance of specially qualified Government officers. The scheme was divided into sections dealing with such matters as supply, transport, law and order, communications, civilian anti-gas training, fire control, accommodation, evacuation, and so on.

Employees of local authorities, members of first-aid organisations, and State departmental officers attended the classes in anti-gas training and airraid precautionary measures so that they would be able to disseminate their knowledge in the event of an air raid. The total number of persons who had received or wer£ receiving instruction in air-raid precautions was 287.

"I believe that the work that has already been done and the ready response by local authorities and numerous other representative bodies and individuals affected," the Minister concluded, "is resulting in an organisation being set up fully prepared and fully equipped to cope with any emergency situation which may arise in any part of the Dominion."