AFTER THE FLOOD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26774, 18 May 1948, Page 6

AFTER THE FLOOD

PROVISION OF RELIEF ARRANGEMENTS FOR GRANTS AND LOANS P.A. GISBORNE. May 17. The provision of financial aid to the flood sufferers was discussed at a conference to-day between the Mayor, Mr N. H. Bull, Mr F. Langbein, Public Works engineer, Mr C. H. Clinkard, of the Treasury, Mr D. W. Coleman, Under-secretary for Housing, and representatives of local bodies and settlers’ associations. Mr Clinkard outlined the arrangements under which grants and loans can be made available —(1) grants to cover living expenses where income has been lost owing to. the flood and no other sources of finance are available; (2) grants for the repair or replacement of household furnishings or personal effects damaged or lost through the flood where the damage or loss inflicts hardship; and (3) loans to repair or replace damage or loss of buildings, stock, or farming improvements. ' - . - ' Every case is to be treated on its merits. Immediate relief can be made in the case of grants, but there will be interest charges on loans for the repair or replacement of capital assets. Applications for loans will be investigated by the State Advances Department, with the assistance of the Department of Agriculture. Grants for the reolacement of household furnishings and personal effects will also be handled by the State Advances Corporation. It is recognised that many peonlc must have lost the source of thefr income overnight, and these cases will be treated with extreme urgency. The extent of the damage to the highways in the district will not be enormous, stated Mr Langbein. The principal problems would be reinstatement of country roads and bridges. Telephone and telegraph and mail sei - vices were almost restored to normal this morning, mails for the north being desptached along the East Coast route and south mails being trucked to Muriwai, connecting with a railcar inward. After being blocked by the floods since Friday, the Main North road via Waioeka was open in daylight to-day for urgent traffic, and the main blockage is expected to be clear tomorrow. Other routes are open. The flood toll of livestock alone will run into many thousands of head of sheep, pigs and cattle. More than 6000 carcasses of sheep, with relatively small numbers of pigs and cattle, were trucked to the freezing works yesterday and dumped in huge piles. It was estimated this morning that about 6000 carcasses were still on the farms, and no reckoning has yet been made of the piles of drowned stock on the long stretch of beach. Some thousands of bales of stockpile wool held by the New Zealand Wool Disposals Commission and stored at the Darton airfield and Waipaoa suffered damage by the flood waters. At Waipaoa the water penetrated to the second tier on the ground floor. A total of 713.315 bales was stored on the two floors at the Darton aerodrome, and between 408 and 500 bales are affected.