THE REFUGEES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20793, 9 February 1931, Page 14

THE REFUGEES.

SCENES AT CAMPS.

ftUUWJLTU DISTRICT.

[THOUSANDS CARED FOE.

UNCEASING ACTIVITY.

MAQRJ WAR RECALLED.

[nr TELEGRAPH. —SPECIAL HEFOTtTEH.} PALMERSTON NORTH. Saturday. The majn refugee camp at the Palmerston North Show Ground is like a town in itself, complete with post office, police station, clothing store, cafeteria and other details. To find any parallel with it one must go back to Maori War days, when women and children were evacuated from (Taranaki to the South Island. Just how many people tho camp contains nobody knows. All the authorities can say is that up to this afternoon 3260 people had come in from- the earthquake region. The authorities hope by checking up personal cards to find the number that are still being cared for. 'At a- rough guess it is about 2000. Another 500 are in charge of the Manawatu Racing Club on its course at.Awapuni and 200 more are housed on the Feilding racecourse. There are 117 patients in hospital. Altogether the Manawatu district has nobly shouldered the burden of caring for the refugees. No one counts the cost. That can be settled later, if and when bills have to be paid. Meanwhile, there is free giving with lavish hands and, no expectation of return. The main camp has all the bustle of an agricultural show day, but with a difference that is easy to see when one has entered /the "gate. It is not a holiday crowd. There are too many women with bare heads and careworn faces. A little boy with both knees bandaged hobbles stiffly past; an old woman has an injured eye and there are other walking cases of the same order. Motor-cars marked "Relief" and motor-trucks come and go ceaselessly, unloading people and goods at the big corrugated iron sheds. A refreshment buffet bears a large sign, "Refugees only." An Exhausted Old Man. Behind the grandstand an old man lies on the. grass, sleeping the sleep of the utterly exhausted. Washing flutters from clothes Every' other person seems to be wearing a blue or magenta ticket as a badge of refugeeship. JThe children are almost light-hearted, but their elders will not reach that stage for some time yet. . The camp has a military organisation. Brigadier J. H. Whyte is in -command and his staff is made up of past and present amy officers, business men and permanent non-commissioned officers. When the call came on Wednesday some of the refugees were already >on their way. The first batch was billeted in the * town. The show ground was taken over and got ready with all speed. The large halls were subdivided into family cubicles with timber, scrim and railway tarpaulins. Thousands of military blankets and palliasses arrived from Auckland and gangs of men were set to work filling the latter with straw. A kitchen staff of voluntary workers was mobilised; crockery and cutlery were got in from local warehouses, and within a few hours the essentials of a camp were ready. Desire To Stay At Camp. The first arrivals were allotted sleeping gpace on the floors and their cubicles were literally built around them. Other halls were set apart as men's and women's dormitories. Hundreds of military tents arrived and were pitched for more families. On Wednesday night and Thursday over 1800 people arrived and yesterday 1400." S'orne came in'relief trains and others in cars, scores of which had been driven to Napier and Hastings by members of the Manawatu Automobile Association for the purpose, of bringing away stricken families. To-day a steady stream of people was still coming in,- but it was much reduced, and the camp authorities believed that the main exodus was over. "We are really a clearing station," said one official. "We have to take all who come in. We have passed a good many on to their friends, but some are bound to femain, and we cannot say how many those will be. Most of the people do not want to be billeted. They have landed here and do not like the idea of another move; also, they want to keep their families together and prefer to stop among their friends. A good many whom we billeted out at first came back to the camp. Wanganui offered to take a thousand, but none would go." The Rarecourse Camp. Out at the racecourse the background is not bustle and dust, but green lawns, trees, flowers and country quiet. The refugees there are in clover and the children romping on the grass find it a glorious holiday. The sleeping arrangements are rather more primitive than at the show ground. The men have straw mattresses upon the seats of the grandstand, which has been partly enclosed with the ever-useful ryilwav tarpaulins. The tea kiosk is one large dormitory for the women and children, and its boiler yields water-for Wat lis, instead of for tea. Meals are cooked and served under the grandstand by voluntary helpers. The Racing Club and private citizens have taken full responsibility for the camp, which is not like the other, run largely on Government credit. At both camps it was found that many of the refugees had hidden cuts, bruises and i her minor injuries. In order that they might not be prevented from leaving. nurses -weie, and aro still, kept busy treating these cases. From the showground a dozen people were sent to a temporary hospital established in a convent building. Preparing humanised milk for babies is another activity. Arrangements are being made to send children from both camps to school next week. The Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. are doing '• S oo * l ser vice in providing for recreation, fct V