EARTHQUAKE RELIEF

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 305, 9 December 1931, Page 7

EARTHQUAKE RELIEF

DISTRICT’S IMPATIENCE A DEPUTATION ARRANGED TO GO TO WELLINGTON. A determined attempt to stir the Government and the Rehabilitation Committee to greater action In the matter of the rehabilitation of the earthquake area is being planned by a deputation of Hastings and Napier businessmen who leave for Wellington to-morrow, to interview the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. Geo. W. Forbes) on Friday morning. It was at first hoped that the deputation would have been able to meet the Rehabilitation Committee in Wellington before going on to interview j Mr. Forbes but a message received from i Mr. Forbes this morning declares that it is impossible for the Rehabilitation Committee to be called together at such short n. ice. The decision is the outcome of a conference between businessmen of Hasting and Napier, when His Worship the Mayor (Mr G. F. Roach), Mr G. A. Maddison, Mr J. 8. Butler, and Mr Gordon Roach, .eting as delegates from a previous Hastings meeting, waited on the Napier Reconstruction Committee. Mr W. E. Barnard, M.P., was also present. The meeting in Hastings was called for the purpose of drawing attention to the delays that are taking place in the matter of rehabilitation, and to the need for greater expedition in granting assistance. On November 27, said Mr Roach, he wrote to the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. Geo. W. Forbes) asking him to come to Hawke’s Bay so that he could hear at first hand the grievances that business people had in reference to rehabilitation. On Saturday last Mr Forbes sent the following telegram in reply:— “Received your letter 27th ult. on my return to Wellington. lam afraid it will not be practicable for me to visit Hawke’s Bay as requested, but would suggest that i.. the first instance a deputation might place its representations before the Rehabilitation Committee, which, I understand, meets at Napier on the 15th inst. ’’ The meeting' went on to discuss at some length what should be done in tho matter of seeking greater satisfaction that is at present being given by th e Government and lhe Rehabilitatio Committee, and it was unanimously agreed that if a deputation waited until December 15 before placing its views before the Rehabilitation Committee it would be well on in January before any action of any real value could be taken. As a consequence of that opinion the meeting resolved that a deputation should wait upon the Napier Reconstruction Comniittee and co-operate with them in an endeavour to arrange for an earlier meeting with the Rehabilitation Committee in Napier, and that a joint deputation, whether or not an earlier meeting of the committee could be arranged, should go to Wellington and interview th e Prime Minister or a Minister nominated by him to act in his stead. At the joint meeting of the Hastings delegation and the Napier Reconstruction Committee the discussion bore mainly upon what lines of expression should be adopted in presenting the .epuUticn’3 views to the Prime Minister. It was ultimately resolved that to avoid an overlapping of views, one member should put the case from point of view of the mortgagor anil mortgagee, another from the point of view of the payer of rates on properties affected by earthquake damage, another the point of view of the shopkeeper seeking assistance and so on, until every aspect of rehabilitation is explained to th e Prime Minister.