“SPECIAL CASE” SAYS PRIME MINISTER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22666, 17 June 1948, Page 4

“SPECIAL CASE” SAYS PRIME MINISTER

FLOOD DAMAGE IN COUNTIES

THE sympathy extended by the Government to individual sufferers by flood damage also will be extended to county councils and other local authorities upon whom the recent disaster laid special burdens, stated the Prime Minister, Mr. P. Fraser, when interviewed yesterday by representatives of the Cook and Waikohu County Councils.

The case for the Cook County Council was stated by Mr. M. T. B. Hall, who pointed out that the flood had spread damage right through the county, and that roads, bridges and other county works had suffered badly. The damage to farms on the Hats was terrific, but the hill country people had not escaped by any means, the effect of the flood on their communications being severe. At least £30,000 would have to be spent in repairing the storm damage. Collection of Rates Before the flood, said Mr. Hall, the county officers had prepared estimates upon which the council had later decided to strike the maximum rate This would nominally provide £60,000 iequired for a normal programme of work and payment of levies to other bodies. There was no doubt that the council would have difficulty in collecting its rate this year. With £30,000 to provide for flood damage in addition to the normal programme the council would be badly affected. The Prime Minister assured Mr. Hall that the council’s losses would have to be dealt with as a special case. The Ministry of Works and the Treasury would have to get together to see what could be done by way of assistance. In reply to further comments by Mr. Hall as to the loss of value on bitumen and access roads, Mr. Fraser remarked that these losses were especially regrettable. He felt that the Government should contribute to the task of making back-country homes accessible. He would be pleased to do what he could to put the case of the council before his Cabinet colleagues. There was no better land anywhere in New Zealand than that which had suffered inundation, Mr. Fraser said in reply to Mr. J. T. Gordon, who emphasised the effect upon _ the Cook County Council’s rating ability of the damage to its most fertile land. “A National Calamity” It was a national calamity that such land should go out of production even for a short time, he added. Mr. A. A. Fraser, chairman of tne Waikohu County Council, also submitted a claim for Government assistance in respect of flood damage. What had happened in the Cook County had also happened in the Waikohu County, he said, and it was estimated that £12,000 would be required to open up communications again. The cost of keeping them open would Qe a heavy drain on the council during tne coming year, in the face of the difficulty of collecting rates. Mr. Fraser repeated his assurance that flood-damage claims placed before the Government from both counties would receive favourable consideration.