NEARLY NORMAL

Northern Advocate, 8 April 1931, Page 5

NEARLY NORMAL

POSITION AT HASTINGS INTERESTING INFORMATION. , -—— ALL DEBRIS REMOVED. 1.. (Special to “Northern Advocate.”) AUCKLAND, This Day.' Speaking yesterday with regard to the conditions at Hastings, Mr Sslwyn Averill, who has been carrying out the duties of registration officer in that centre of Hawke’s Bay, told a Press representative IJhat Hastings was nearly back to normal. “Last Monday week,” he said, “we took a census of rebuilt chimneys and found that, out of 2450 houses, only 350 appeared to be unoccupied. At the rate people have been ( returning, I expect that number is down to 150 or even 100 "by how.” The latest return showed that 1650 houses had been provided with • one chimney each and 450 Sad still to be dealt with. Some of the work had been carried out by the Public Works Department, and the rest by private contractors, and it was expected that the cost would be met, after all, out of the relief fund. “When "1 left,” he said, “we understood that the Central Relief Committee had aban doned the idea that there would be only sufficient for personal relief. “When I was last in Wellington I gathered that the Mayor’s Committee. there had kept most of its £IOO,OOO fund intact, although Wellington had over 5000 refugees billeted there at one -time. For another thing, we found in Hastings that we had not spent nearly so much on supplies in the early days as people were saying. On the whole, it will not be surprising if there is some relief money for repairs to homes.” Seven Hundred Workmen. About 700 local men were working in Hastings at present under the Unemployment Board’s No. 5 scheme, continued Mr Averill. The Minister of Labour, the Hon. S. O. Smith, had given this a good start with sT grant of £SOOO for clearing up the town. The money had been spent at the rate ; of about £I3OO a week, and as 'a result practically all debris had been removed, leaving the way clear for rebuilding. The teinporary shops erected so far were of a good type, attractive in appearance and not by any means “tin lean-tos.” In fact, it would probably be difficult to get the owners to demolish them a few years hence, if they were' required. Retail trade in. the town was now as good as, dr better than, before the earthquake. The hotels were doing probaoly twice their former business —hundreds of men shifting bricks nafur- | ally became thirsty. Arrangements had been made to ( widen the main street, Heretaunga Street, by 10 feet, but this could not j be done at once, because some buildings had- withstood the earthquake quite well and could not he cut back unless the owners were compensated ‘ in some way.

So far as restoring the town was concerned, an estimate had been made, and it showed that the early figure of £1,000,000 as the probable cost was altogether excessive. Unworthy Weeded Out. The registration of inhabitants after the earthquake had been a very great ■help in controlling the distribution of relief and also In repatriating refugees. One of the first effects had been to clear the town of hundreds of men who had come there simply in Search .of free food. These men had been barred from registering, and, being unregistered, had been unable to get ration cards. On the first day of rationing, expenditure dropped more than 50 per cent. Another result had been to encourage able-bodied men to return. Such men knew whatever work was available it had been secured to them in advance, and they quickly came back to take advantage of it. Mr Averill warmly praised the spirit of the men who worked for the firstfortnight entirely without pay and afterwards for relief rates of wages. He said he had never had the least trouble at the weekly pay-outs, and there had been very little friction at any time. The spirit of the town all through had been excellent and he had no doubt that it would more than recover the lost ground within a very slurc time. A DIFFERENT TALE. FROM RURAL ZONE. SETTLERS ANXIOUS. (Special to “Northern Advocate.”) NAPIER, This Day. Settlers of the Tangoio district are urging that they be given some measure of relief before the winter sets in. The majority of the homes in the district, they contend, require immediate attention by way of extensive repairs. Representations have been made by the settlers to the Relief Committee of ' *tho Hawke’s Bay County Council, requesting that steps be taken as soon possible to have the houses in the three settlements of Tangoio, Kaiwaka and Arapawanui repaired. They regard the reconstruction of chimneys as a | secondary eonsideration in many cases, % as the majority of the houses, they say, will have to be repaired before the chimneys can be rebuilt.

The district, which was near the centre of the disturbance, suffered extensive damage, and practically all the houses have been removed from their foundation blocks. The proposal is to spend £25 on each house. This would fall far short of the requirements, according to the settlers, who state that such a sum would be wholly inadequate to cover the costs of repairing the damage in most cases. None of the settlers in the district has been able to arrange private finance, and consequently the work of reconstruction has been materially delayed, with the result that fears are entertained for the habitability of the homes during the winter months. The representations of fcjie settlers will bo brought before the Public Works Department and the County Council’s Relief Committee, but it is realised that the Department, which is pushing ahead with its programme of repairing country homesteads with all possible speed, will meet with difficulty, owing to the fact that properties in the three settlements are widely scattered. The settlers, on the other hand, urge that the work 4o be done immediately, and before the roads are made impassable by winter rains.