KOPUAWHARA TRAGEDY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 56, Issue 4016, 23 February 1938, Page 6

KOPUAWHARA TRAGEDY

NATIONAL SYMPATHY. TELEGRAM FROM MR SAVAGE. The Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M}. J. Savage, sent a telegram to the Hon. P. Fraser at Wairoa, asking Mr Fraser to express to the relatives and friends of those lost in the disaster the heartfelt sympathy of the Government and himself at the tragic loss of those valuable lives. Some had perished while trying to save others; they were companions in life and now comrades in death. The thoughts of all citizens to-day were with the stricken. The country had lost splendid workers, and sympathetic remembrance was the nation’s tribute. 1 FULL COMPENSATION. PAYMENT BY GOVERNMENT. Mr D. W. Coleman, M.P., for Gisborne, stated yesterday that the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, informed him that the Government will pay full compensation under the provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Act in respect of all the victims of the Kopuawhara tragedy, similar to what would have been paid if the victims, had lost their lives by accident while working. FUNERAL OF SEVEN VICTIMS. The bodies of seven of the 21 victims of the Kopuawhara camp disaster were buried at the Wairoa Cemetery yesterday morning at a public funeral, which was attended by Ministers of the Crown, representatives of the New Zealand Workers’ Union, s*oo public works employees, and practically every resident of Wairoa and many from the surrounding district. The seven victims concerned were Messrs W. Dunn, R. Johnston, F. W. Fry, T. Tracey, T. Hall, M. Pender and W. Auld.