EVACUATION OF NAPIER ORDERED

Hawera Star, Volume L, 5 February 1931, Page 5

EVACUATION OF NAPIER ORDERED

Fears of Disease Outbreak

PLANS FOR BILLETING Hawera Eye-Witnesses’ Story Refugees Stricken with Grief & Terror “[t is appalling.’’ “If you listened all day to descriptions you could still have no idea of the awful conditions. In these, and similar phrases, every person who has returned to Hawera from the earthquake stricken area on the East Coast replies to the question, “What is it like over there?” X' ' The principal fact that stands out in to-day’s news relating to ‘ -the earthquake is the order that “Napier must be evacuated within two days.” Local volunteers returned from the scene of the catastrophe agree with the necessity for this decision. “The thing to do,” said one helper, “is not to get supplies to Napier, but to get people out of that ruined town.” Organisation has already been set afoot in Hawera for the reception of refugees. Latest advice on this score is to the effect that between Waipukurau and Napier there is any amount of transport available, and efforts are being concentrated upon getting people to Palmerston North, from where they will be sent to other towns for billeting. Appeals have been made locally for billets for these refugees, who have no homes, no money and no possessions of any kind. It is obvious that the people of New Zealand, and of the North Island particularly, will have to rally around their unfortunate eonntiymen in a way that has not. been deemed within the bounds of any possible necessity since the 1918 influenze epidemic. The stories being brought back from Napier more than substan- . tiate the statements of those who say that the conditions there .are appalling. “The people showed pitiable signs of having passed through a ijight of terror,” said one returned local resident, who arrived on fho scene on the morning following the earthquake. “People could be seen sitting on the roadside, huddled together with arms around their few poor possessions. Men and women • who had lost children sat holding chairs or other bits of furniture they had dragged away in their panic, and when asked if they were all right for food, they only asked in a dazed fashion if any more bodies had been found. The most pitable sight I have ever seen in my life was that at the Technical School, where groups of parents sat huddled, dully waiting for the bodies of pupils to be recovered.” “I took a camera, but I had not the heart to take any photos,” ’ said another man. While official figures cannot be given, it. seems certain that the death roll must mount higher than was indicated yesterday. ' , Those interviewed this morning were not prepared to give an cst.i- / mate of the number dead, but indicated that they were prepared to the list would run into hundreds. “No one can tell,” said one man, “and it will do no good to make guesses in the dark. There is no official to give official information.”

Latest private information, from a source in close touch with a committee of responsible Napier business men, set up last night, is to the effect that all women and children will be evacuated and that men with any reason to remain will be encamped on military lines. Temporary provision will be made for water supply, sanitation, etc., for these men, and chlorinating stations will be established to minimise the risk of disease spreading. 1 ■ * It is also gathered from responsible sources of opinion k« that re-building operations, when they are commenced, will / be concentrated upon Hastings. At present, however, plans V for re-building are non-existent. ff- ~ The bluejackets from the warships are doing good work in - Napier. Strict picketing is being carried out by fully armed naval v'/f'* oven, who are keeping a keen eye open for looting. The naval •»; ratings are also working hard in search operations, some parties using acetone plants for breaking through steel girders in order to reach bodies buried in the debris. One of the few comforting facts emerging from a mass of evidence of misery and suffering is that most of the people were better in appearance last night than they were yesterday morning. The "" sense of strain and terror was leaving them and their faces bore a less haunted appearance than when they were first seen the morning following the disaster.

EVACUATION ORDERED

terminate number of its population of about i!0,000 persons. With one gigantic sweep the earthquake has reduced the town to a heap of.ruins still idazing and crumbling at each shake.

NAPIER RESIDENTS TO LEAVE Y . SERIOUS EPIDEMIC FEARED FAMILIES UNDER CANVAS. /p v Association ) WELLINGTON, Fob. 4. A general order was issued to-night demanding Ihe evacuation of Napier within two days. There has been a breakdown 'of the sewerage, and the authorities fear an outbreak of serious disease if the inhabitants do not leave ~ the town as expeditiously as possible. Arrangements already, have been made to evacuate 5000 women and children to Palmerston North. •Small shakes preceded by a booming in the hills to the west are still experienced. Two fires were still burning in Hastings 10-night. Families are camping in gardens on the wayside under canvas throughout the Napier and Hastings area. UNEELIEVAELE NAPIER RUIN .% SKELETON of FORMER SELF FEARFUL ’QUAKE TOLL. WELLINGTON, Feb. 5 Shrouded with a pall of evil-smelling •pj,*' smoke, Napier has become overnight a skeleton of its former self and the * grave of what still remains an inile-

The population has become a community without a home, without food or water, and for the most part without shelter. In one moment, so sudden was the visitation, the population was divorced from its town to become, as it were, a thing apart from the roaring mass of buildings that joined in one great conflagration from end to end or the business area.

The futility of describing the tremendous havoc can only be realised by those who have seen the aftermath of

’..ie Dominion’s most disastrous upheaval. ai d particularly by those who have gone through it and yet show an almost unbelievable calmness.

Napier as a town lids been wiped off the map. To-day it is a smouldering heap of ruins, the sepulchre of a prosperous port and the gaunt remains of a beautiful seaside? town. Its people are wandering the streets hopelessly, yet with a fortitude born of extreme adversity. Before them I no seafront has receded perhaps a hundred feet from the famous parade that itself has risen from eight to ten feet. Behind them the whole town is a reeking mass of ruins with not one building standing in the centre part enclosed by Dickens, Emerson, Tennyson and Hastings Streets. The fact! of the Bluff has come down across the road to Port Ahuriri and blocked access to it by land as well as by sea, at least for the moment. Whole faces of tht! 'Hospital Ilill and the othi»r lieights behind the town have crashed on to Ihe buildings below. Not, a building in Napier has escaped damage. Houses have lost chimneys or whole sides. Streets have been torn up like billiard cloths ripped with a sturdy cue, ami telegraph poles have bee:: thrust at a ciazy angle over every road with wires tangled and hanging

from wrecked buildings like charred serpents suspended from the Inst branches of a brick and concrete forest. The accounts of those who were in the town at the time of the upheaval show that the movement i of the earth was. almost, vertical, snid that the whole area, was forced upward for several feet with one terrilic .jerk, to subside with u sickening jolt. As appears to liave been the case in other parts of the stricken district, the upheaval came like a flash and left behind it a trail of ruin within a few seconds. At 11 o’clock in the morning shops and offices were full of people. There was an immediate rush for the streets, but those who gained them were in many instances buried as they reached the footpaths. The whole of Napier was deafened with the roar of faffing masonry. Then a strange, silence- followed for a space. Suddenly recovering from their terror, £t;o people raced for the foreshore to avoid being trapped by still crumbling buildings. Even on the beach the sight was terrifying. The sea washed! away from the beach for, it is stated, hundreds of feet, and then rolled back. At the same time the Bluff roared over the road at its foot. Itocks that before had never appeared above the surface came above the water level, the whole seafront rising; about 8 or 10 feet. Appalled, the residents of Napier gazed in horrified amazement at the destruction. The hills behind the town were crumbling away in clouds of dust, whole -sides of houses high above the shore- were -being torn away, and on the flat huge tongues of flame were appearing from every direction. The town was immediately isolated from the outside world, and Napier was left a blazing ruin to witness the "burning of its very heart for a day and a night.

HASTINGS CASUALTY LIST DEAD MAY NUMBER, HUNDRED MANY BODIES STILL BURIED. WELLINGTON, Feb. 4. Following is the official list of Hastings dead as compiled by the Hastings J. H. Golebourne, care Williams and Kettle, Hastings. Edward Holland, address not stated.

Riiv Graham, Hastings. S. A. Spence, address not- slated. 'J'" W. Alexander, Pnkipaki, Hastings. ivy May Goods 11, Hastings. Miss Grudenoff, Wellwood Street, Hastings. Bert Dwyer. 911 Southland Road, Hastings. William Love, l aramu Road, Hastings. Herbert Walker, address n-ot- stated. Percrival Lewis, care Nelsons, Ltd., Hastings. , Ella Nuttall, address not stated.^ Airs Jensen, Haunioana, near Hastings. Kathleen B'owvu, Jo Avenue Road, Hastings. George Stevenson, Hastings. Albert Gigg, Hastings. Airs Douglass F. Murray, Hastings, and Dina Alurray, her infant daughter. Alex. Rattray, Bush Inn Hotel, Riccarton. Miss Vylvan Allan, address not stated. Ernest Jones. Williams Street, Hastings. W. L. Walker, powerhouse employee, Hastings. Doris May Hexto, Hastings. Rav Broavn. address not stated.

Rodney Francis Russ, 302 Fitzroy Avenue, Hastings. Miss Houlihan, care Gill’s auction mart, Hastings. Airs Frank Cole, Hastings, and her two sons, aged 3 and 4 respectively. Henry D. Aloud. 700 Avenue Road, Hastings. Roy AlcLennan. Havelock North, married. Ernest Leaning, -bootmaker, Hastings Allan McDonald, address nptl stated. Airs A. H. Wing, Hastings. Patsy Whyte, daughter of Dr. A. D. S. AVliyte, Hastings. Phillipa C'ouper, Otane, Hawke’s Bay. Raina Maria, Mounga Bridge Pa, Hastings. Pakotoroa, Mounga Bridge Pa, Hastings. Roy Heenedy, 304 Miller Street. Mrs Berry (supposed), address not stated —Short and brown hair; dressed in pale grey crepe de chine dress trimmed with red; . wearing necklace. Airs Bartlett (supposed), address not stated —Dressed in floral silk frock; ring and a two-diamond

No possible estimate can be made at the moment of the death roll although it is thought that it is considerable, and that it might .run into hundreds. The nurses’ homo and the hospital on the hill collapsed (like weatherboarding in a hurricane, and it is known that at least seven deaths have occurred among the nurses. It is also feared that a number of students, probably 40, at tbe Technical School, at the south end of the town, have perished beneath the buildings, which tumbled in and rolled -partly across the road. Dr. Moore’-s hospital, on the seafront-, a two-storey structure, tilted back several feet in the front to lie at' a queer angle, and crumpled in at the back. No report has yet been made as to the numbers who might have died within the building, nor can any statement be made as to the numbers who have lost their lives in the heart of the business area, which until late this morning was a roaring mass of flame. It would be practically useless to differentiate between the buildings that have been destroyed and those still standing. A statement that the entire central part of the town, from the seafront to the gardens on the south has been razed, covers the position.

Apart from that incalculable damage has been done in every direction, and there is not a part of Napier that has not suffered. The hack country for miles is covered with cracks in the earth, some too wide for a man to jump. Roads liave been torn up in "laces, bridges have been thrust ’eet out of alignment, and railway lines lead to one bridge several feet clear of the ground. CHLORINATING PLANT WANTED. DISPATCH BY FIVE VP LANES. AUCKLAND, Feb. 4. The following message from the Com- > moclore of H.M.S. Dunedin, -who is ashore at Napier, to the warship was’ intercepted by H.M.S. Veronica: “Send! the lieutenant in charge of torpedo! stores with nil available demolition stores to report to the Veronica.’’ Commander Clover said this message indicated that it was intended to blow' up several buildings in Napier in order to check the flames. The commander of the Veronica later sent the following message to the Commodore of the Dunedin: "The O.C. air base reports that four Moth ’planes i are ready for immediate service. Mi Eiliot Davis offers a chlorinating plant, which will Ire carried by ’plane.’’ The Commodore replied: "Request that the chlorinating plant be sent.’’ Five aeroplanes left Auckland this afternoon with the plant MANY ’PLANES ASSIST. CONCENTRATION AT RONGOTAI. WELLINGTON, Feb. 4. Filled with machines, the hangar at Rogotai aerodrome bears testimony to the amount of work being done by the Air Force and aero clubs in the emergency. Beside all machines which are at present engaged in the stricken districts numbers of pilots are waiting at Rongotai ready to leave immediately the Government summons them to action. An Air Force Moth and machines from Marlborough and Wellington are there. The ground engineers of the Wellington Aero Club are working night and da\ keeping the machines in trim for tlieir arduous tasks. "It is everything the papers said: it was,’’ remarked Flight-Li.eut. G. L. St oilman, asked about the state of the devastated area when he returned to Rongotai late this afternoon. "There are hundreds of dead in Napier arid tin whole place is chaos.’’ RACES POSTPONED GISBORNE MEETING. TO BE HELD NEXT WEEK. GISBORNE, Feb. 4. The Gisborne races, which were to be jh.eldi to-morrow and Saturday, have been postponed for one week on account. of the earthquake. The Poverty Bay Turf Club’s meeting was set down for Thursday and ‘Saturday of next week, but ib is expected that this club will fa’ll into- line and postpone its meeting.

engagement ring. Lily Jenkins. Caroline Road, Hastings. Airs Leone Turner, found in Tvaramu Road, address not stated. Aiabel Ann Steer, 801 East Aubyn Street, Hastings. Mary Alice McLeod, wife of William • McLeod, Pakipa-ki, Hastings. Gladys Alma Cleary, single, Warwick Rtoad, Hastings. Raymond Brown, care Beck’s Pharmacy, Hastings. James Woodford Heighway, married, 00-1 Queen Street, Hastings. Olive Cambridge, aged 18. 822 Kararaii Road, Hastings. Brian Gouper, 622 El risen Road, Hastings, aged two- yeans. UNOFFICIAL LIST. The following are- unofficial, but well authenticated: —- Airs Colin Fitzpatrick. St. Aubyn Street, Hastings. Ivy Thompson, Hastings (daughter of T. J. Thompson). John A. Ross, proprietor of the Grand Hotel. Mrs Tou-hy, Seddon Street, Hastings. T. H. Gill, auctioneer, Hastings. Arthur L. Ryan (missing, believed killed), journalist, Hastings. Albert Goodall, sigmvriter, Hastings. Airs Barrett, supposed to belong to Aiasterton and believed to be killed, mother of Airs Pearce, living at Pet one. An authoritative estimate issued at a Cabinet Ministers and citizens’ conference to-dav reckons the probable deaths m Hastings at between 80 and 100. Alanv are known to be still buried. An injured woman is Airs Rov AlcLenna. ‘ i

SCHOOLBOYS’ FATE. TECHNICAL COLLEGE SCENES. EXTENT OF DAMAGE. NAPIER, Feb. 4. In the ruins of the Technical College several boys are known to be buried beneath a mass of bricks and mortar. Mothers from all parts of Napier and Hawke’s Bay came pleading for information, and heartrending scenes were witnessed. There were many buildings which had cost £30,000 and upwards to erect of which not a vestige remains- but bricks and mortar. Among the few buildings standing almost intact, however, are Dalgety’s A.O.E. building, Public Trust, ancl Power Board oiiicos. Those are cracked. I’he new Post Office., opened by the Hon. .!. B. Donald in May, 1929, is practically a shell. Pictures of the battle-scarred towns and villages of France and Flanders arc scones not one whit worse than those in the business area of Napier. Dr. Moore’s large hospital, near the Bluff, was broken round the base, and took a backward cant of five to ten degrees, but itiil not topple right over. The Napier newspaper officers are in ruins. There were several new buildings which had been erected under the lee of the bluff, and in the neighbourhood of Emerson .Street, including the new Anglican Church, hardly any of which are now anything but tottering walls.

The conduct of the people under the awful calamity which has befallen them is magnificent, their courage being beyond all praise. They are, not bemoaning their fate. The women and children are being evacuated as fast as motor cars can get them away, and the men are giving a helping hand in every possible way. Two hours after the first, earthquake many business men returned to their ofliccs aim succeeded in saving valuable books, devilments ail’d cash, and all through the day stores have been collected from the buildings that can be entered.

TERRIFYING SCENES AT NAPIER.

NOT FIT FOR PUBLICATION,

EY F - WIT X ESSES ’ IMPRESSIONS.

Without uwelling on the terrible scenes when huge quantities of masonry literally plunged from the faces of huge business premises engulfing shrieking townspeople, a Palmerston North man who returned from stricken Napier stated that, if he talked for hours of the frightful calamity he. could never describo the frightful desolation. The earthquake was of such a sudden and heaving nature that shop assistants were unable to stand and fight thenway to the doors, with the result that they fell shrieking, while buildings collapsed over their heads. Little better off were those in the streets for, standing amidst the deafening roar, they were crushed in the space of seconds. “The terrifying scenes are not fit for publication,” he continued. "If I talked for hours 1 could give you no idea of the frightful desolation. God only knows what happened. The business portion is completely ruined and entirely beyond repair or salvage. How people now live I don’t know.” In company with stone composition buildings the Alasonio Hotel fell with a terrific roar, fire then breaking out to leave only a mass of cinders before continuing to burn the remains of nearby buildings. " When he left in the early evening four Huge fires were raging fiercely in the main business area, the brigades operating being handicapped by their inability to surmount the debris to get at the seat of the fires. With only a trickle of water they had no chance of preventing the fires from spreading to all portions of the business area. AVhen the dust clouds were blown away debris was discovered lying 20 feet high across all the main streets. Bodies were certain to be beneath the masses and there was no likelihood of Inking an official talK- for days.

Following the calamity it was imp os sible to walk along the main streets because of the wreckage, all bound up with telegraph poles, vehicles and entangled wires. IN DANNEVIRKE HOSPITAL TEN INJURED ADMITTED DANNEVIRKE, Fob. 4. The following were admitted to the Dannevirke Hospital: John Baird, Puketitiri, fractured arm. Arthur Spackman, chemist, Napier, broken leg. Mark Jarvis, Taradale, surgical ease from Napier Hospital, no fresh injuries. George Orme, Nelson Street, Napier, broken leg.. Doris Fallery, masseuse, Napier Hospital, fractured arm. Herbert Massey, student. Greenmeadows. Albert Alassey, student at Alission, Greenmeadows, broken leg. Airs Bessie Crowley, Carlyle Street, Napier, broken teg, arm and ribs. Eliza Wablberg, Burke Street, Napier, broken, leg. Anne Wells, Napier, broken leg and other injuries.

MOKE NURSES THAN NEEDED NO ORG ANISATION AT NAPIER WET-LING TON; Feb. 4. “Napier is full of nurses and doctors who are giving the injured all the attention they require, but there is a lack of organised effort in dealing with the situation generally in that town,” said Mr Michael Styver, Wellington, to-day. Mr Styver conveyed a party of nurses to Napier at 3.15 a.m. to-day and returning to the city at dawn. Mr Styver said there was a tremendous number of nurses at Napier. Indeed there were as many nurses as patients. Doctors were standing round on the racecourse because there was nothing for tlhern to do. That was at 9 a.m. to-day. By something of a miracle, the water supply wag again available and attempts were being made to extinguish the fires that were still burning. He did not think there was anybody who needed attention who was not being taken care of. There seemed to be no organisation of any kind at Napier. Nobody knew what was being done nor what should by done in any organised fashion. He even had difficulty in ascertaining where to take the nurses who were in his car. When he left at dawn, however, a conference was in progress at the police station to organise the efforts that were being made. “An instance of what lack of organsation existed,” said Mr Styver, “was the accidental discovery by a policeman walking down one of the streets of Napier of three bodies under wreckage.” At Hastings it was reported to Mr Styver tlrat thirty bodies had been recovered and forty more were istill in ruins. The reason given why better progress had not been made with this work was the lack of crow-bars and similar implements. INJURED REACH WAIPUKURAU. LORRY-LOADS FROM NAPIER-. WAIPUKURAU, Feb. 4, •V clearing station reminiscent of the war is functioning splendidly at Waipukurau. Ambulance lorries arriving from the stricken area, conveying injured persons, are received into an ambulance station fitted up in large sample rooms. Doctors and nurses attend them 1 ill they can be despatched by trains to the south.

An endless stream of traffic passing through the town tells- of the general exodus of homeless and work less folk from Hastings and Napier.

Further details from Wairoa show that practically all the business premises arc seriously damaged beyond repair and rebuilding is necessary. Rust ? bakery and confectionery business is m ruins, and Burkin's shoe store collapsed. seriously injuring the proprietor. Shopkeepers state that their losses on buildings and stock in trade are enormous.

Tn both Waipukurau and Waipawa many slept in the open last night, but lain anil wind to-night have forced folk indoors, though tremors are still being frit.

Owing to a big slip and wide fissures flu Argyle-Te Auto road fa secondary highway) is impassable.

MATERNITY HOME WRECKED

BABIES’ MIRACULOUS ESCAPE

gunny xai'if.r ix r;rix. WELLINGTON, Feb. 4. A tragic story was told by Captain Delaney, children's officer at the Salvation Army maternity home, Napier, after arrival at Wellington, at 1.30 p.m. wifi Lieutenant Dune, Miss Thomson ami nine babies, four to I'B months old. “it was terrible." she said. “There was no warning. The whole place simply appeared to collapse. ” Her first , care was for the babies. :She rushed out to where five were lying in the sun, but just in time to see a brick chimney collapse and fall among them. By an act of Providence, nowcvcr, not one was injured. The other six in the house we *e ~lso uninjured and all were taken to a place of safety. There was also two or three maternity patfents in the home and these also were not hurt. When she went into Xapier at seven o ’clock the town looked as if it *iad been subjected to a severe bombardment. The centre for over a mile square was a mass of flames. Every concrete and brick building had collapsed. It was like an upheaval and chore was a terrible number of deaths. She said the sight presented in the evening would have made the strong flinch. A number of people were lying in the streets and buried under debris, some terribly injured and some dead. The town was.all in darkness which added to the horror of the situation. Although there were great numbers of people in the town they were not demonstrative. They' went about their work of attending to the injured with a silence that was impressive. The “Evening Post” special representative in the earthquake area reports as follows to his newspaper and the Xew Zealand Press Association on Tuesday:— “Sunny and pleasant Napier, famed for its fine gardens and lovely homes, lies stricken to-day' in chaotic"tragedy', entirely beyond all attempts at description. “AIT along the (Marine Parade this lovely evening, with a full harvest moon, there arc scattered families with their household goods round them, listless, but dully glad to be alive, while in the 'town behind them lie countless dead beneath the ruins of ten acres of tlic most heavily build part of Xapier. It was levelled by this morning’s earthquake. except for a few' of the larger and modern reinforced concrete buildings, most of" which are gutted by fire. “The strength of the earthquake is probably beyond the Rossi Eorel scales reading. The disaster is comparable with the great earthquakes of history, and was only saved from an equally heavy toll in life because the town was smaller. ‘As in all earthquakes, the area of damage is strangely limited to certain quarters, but in these every brick building is a mound of rubble, and means either tragedy in trapped lives or desolation. “Not in a lifetime will the memory of this catastrophe pass. The death roll in Xapier alone, estimated from conversations with doctors and those who are assisting in the care of the injured, must run into hundreds. It -was cautiously' assessed this evening by' a hospital worker, who had assisted at many' homes, as 200, out it may r well be more.” SERVICES OF WARSHIP AUSTRALIAN OFFER APPRPEOIATED. WELLINGTON, Feb. 5. Mr. Forbes ihas cabled to the Commonwealth Government on behalf of the people of New Zealand expressing: appreciation of the generous offer of the services of an Australian warship but assuring the Australian Government that adequate arrangements have been made for the necessary relief measures. DOCTORS AND NURSES. GOVERNOR’S REQUEST. WELLINGTON, Feb. 4. Immediately news of the disaster was received the Governor-General instructed the Health Department to send to Napier an adequate staff of doctors and nurses. Arrangements were put in train forthwith and as a result before the day expired the following medical aid and nursing staff were on the way to give assistance:— From Wellington, 20 doctors and 55 nurses; Palmerston North, nine doctors and 24 nurses; Auckland, six doctors and 15 nurses; New' Plymouth, three doctors and six nurses; Taumarunui, six nurses; Gisborne, five doctors. The total was 43 doctors and 106 nurses, but the figures are not complete as a number of doctors and nurses are also known to have left from Wanganui and possibly' other centres, and other assistance w'as sent from places nearer to Najder. DAMAGE TO OIL STORES TANKS AND BUILDINGS. STAFFS BELIEVED SAFE.

WELLINGTON, Feb. 4. The damage to the bulk oil and motor spirit .stores at Napier and Hastings does not appear so bad as -was at first feared. Reports received by the local officers are brief, but the indications are that, though the tanks and buildings have suffered considerably, the staffs are safe iso far as is known. The Shell Company states that all well tanks are in a terrible mess. The Vacuum Company’s tanks are all right, but the brick store at Hastings collapsed. The staff is safe. A Texas first grade tank at Hastings is leaking at a joint of a service pipe and the Texas Company message states also that practically all garages at Napier are burnt and many at Hastings have been destroyed. HAWERA RELIEF FUND OPENED BY THE MAYOR. The Mayor of ffawera (Mr E. A. Pacey) has issued to-day an appeal for funds to be applied to the relief of the earthquake sufferers. Donations, which will be acknowledged from day to day in the “Star’ ’ may he sent to the -Borough Council Chambers or to the office of this paper.

TENT FIELD HOSPITAL,

DESPATCH FROM WELLINGTON. TRANSPORT ORGANTSATTON, WELLINGTON, Feb. 4. During last night the Health Department, in co-operation with the Defence Department, sent by motor transport a tent field hospital with 200 beds and medical stores with a staff of 20 hospital orderlies. Supplies of medical and surgical stores, including vaccines, have lieen going forward all the time. Multitudes of voluntary helpers have offered their services and the Wellington Automobile Association has undertook to organise motor transport to convey relief workers to Napier and Hastings The first batch of doctors , and nurses was conveyed by General and Dominion Motors, Ltd. Drs. Lynch (pathologist) and Gillies (orthopaedic, surgeon) left last evening with a very considerable stock of medical and surgical supplies, including splints for fracture cases. The Director-General of Health (Dr. Watt), accompanied by several medical officers, left for Napier to-day. Before leaving he said it W'ould obviously be necessary to remove many of the sufferers to hospitals in other districts where they could be given the best attention. Inquiries are being made of all hospitals in convenient localities as to the number of patients they can provide for. This is a necessary preliminary to the evacuation from Hawke’s Bay. Two of the Wellington free city ambulances went to the area last night: also one from Palmerston North and a motor ear went with X-ray equipment. GIRL KILLED IN HIS ARMS MAN’S TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE. HASTINGS STORE CRASH. PAmWIBKE, Eeb. Amongst those who were inside Roach’s, *Ltd., buildings at Hastings when the earthquake started was Mr' Ernie E. Weston, managaing director : of Weston ‘Bros., Ltd., Christchurch. To a ‘News” representative Mr Weston related his trying experiences. “I had just completed my business w'hen I felt the preliminary movement of the earthquake,” he said, “and one young lady assistant rushed to my arms. I endeavoured to pacify' her, remarking that all would be over in a second, but then the big crash came. Suddenly one of the steel pillars fell right across the girl’s body' and she was crushed alongside the counter. She pleaded for freedom but the big pillar held her in such a position that in a moment her life was gone.

“I realised that I had missed death by inches. Looking round I observed daylight shooting through the debris. I then crawled and managed to get out. Everywhere there were poor souls panic and terror-stricken. Appeals for help were coming from everywhere and in W'hat w'as once the boot department I saw' the figure of a man desperately' fighting for his life. Help was beyond the question. In one corner fire broke out but an appeal for buckets brought little response amongst the panicstricken community'. It was an appalling sight. “With others I was able to assist in lifting a heavy' beam from across the shoulders of Gerald Roach, and he was lucky to craw'l out alive. As the fire engines were pinned in at the station and as the water mains had burst there w'as little that could be done with the hose that w'as available. It was a shocking position to be in when one considers that only' a few moments prevailed.

“After many' tense moments during the afternoon,” continued Air Weston, “there W'ere two short and sharp shocks between 8 and 8.30 last night that added more fuel to the catastropne. .The Grand Hotel then>commenced to burn and this along with other pitiful sights was heart-breaking, particularly' as the community w'as practically powerless. I summed" up the position and with my' wife decided to camp the night in the park. ‘‘ It is remarkable to find that amongst all the conflict three churches still remain intact —the 'Church of England built of ferro-concrete, the Roman Catholic Church built of ferro-concrete, and the Salvation Army sin olestoreyed brick edifice. The" latter has not even a broken window.

“The whole affair makes. a sad and ~ depressing picture,” concluded Mr Weston, ‘-'and I have no desire to undergo another experience like that. When Roach’s building crashed many of ilie staff never had a chance. Some probably would have saved themselves had they sought shelter under the counters, but no-one ever thought that such a big shake was coming. Had the pillar struck me instead of the pomassistant I was afraid I would not have been able to relate my experiences. It is a sad business.”

RELIEF LORRY CRASH. DRIVER’S LUCKY ESCAPE. WELLINGTON, Feb. 4. 'Die driver of the- lorry which when proceeding to the relief camp at Trentlmm to load supplies for the stricken area was struck by a goods train coming from Wellington at 2 a.m. was A. T. Newman, of Brooklyn. He had a marvellous escape. After being attended to by Dr. Tweed for head injuries he was able to proceed home. Neither the train nor the lorry was going fast. The front of the lorry was badly damaged. BENEFIT CONCERT GRAND THEATRE MONDAY NIGHT

The song recital to be presented at the Grand Theatre on Monday evening by Miss Constance Reilly and Mr Rex Harrison will be staged as arranged, but the whole of the proceeds will be devoted to the Earthquake Relief Fund. The use of the theatre has been granted free by the Hawera Picture Company and the theatre staff will also give their services for the evening. 1 The Mayoress (Mrs Pacev) has call- ! ed a meeting for 7.30 to-night at the I Borough Council Chambers of all in- ! tercsted and willing to assist in the organisation of the sale of tickets.