MAGNIFICENT COURAGE

Taranaki Daily News, 7 February 1931, Page 4

MAGNIFICENT COURAGE

THE PEOPLE’S EXTREME TEST

ORDER GRADUALLY EVOLVED.

MANY PERSONAL INCIDENTS. : ' By Teliwrftph.-rPim .... ‘ Hastings, Feb. 8. The very finest, attributes of mankind were needed to withstand the terrible, shock that the loss of property and Ijves has created in. Hastings, and those attributes have been exhibited in a; copipletely universal and whole-heart-. ed way. Each individual' example of courage and unselfishness, shown alike j by men and by women, was .magni-j ficent in iteelf, but those' qualities seen 1 in the mass were. impressive (beyond: words. The calamity was an extreme , test, and. the .mtizehS- Myi? HP* failed under it. ‘ Hundreds of instances occur to ones ■ ■ mind. A young man living, in Hastings, ■ ■fearing that his sister, who was a nurse at the; Napier. Hospital, might have (been a victim, hurried in to ihvesti-, gate. He could find no trace of. h?r,; but. after further search discovered her lying among the dead. He did what 'ffttle he could and, going straight back to Hastings,-went on 1 police-duty in the > town and, with complete sei*. possession, - -spent- -the- entire ..night at work.' Then, after a light breakfast and a few minutes of sleepless rest, he went to do-other work wherever work-, ers were needed. . A motner whose little child ‘ was somewhere in the town, though filled with anxiety -for her girl’s safety, gave her time and - professional skill un an attempt to ease pain and save, the life, of a gravely injured man who was partly buried under a concrete coping. The man subsequently died, and it was later discovered that the J heroic woman’s daughter had been 'buried and DIED TO SAVE OTHERS. -I

Mr. T. H. Gill, a well-known, land; agent, lost his life in attempting to; save the life of Mips Houlagan, one of. his clerks,.hut both were trapped under' the debris; “ ' ' '■■!“■. ■ “ A young woman assistant; employed > an . the department store of Roach’s,: Ltd., was partly buried'and most pain- ; fully injured when, the-building.entire-; ly collapsed. When the rescuers came; to her aid she insisted very urgently, i but unsuccessfully, that a man . lying; partly buried- beside her ‘should b?> opoved first. " r ‘ I After the first dreadful shock mgri; and women beca.me ea.lm, and determiri-, ed that everything- humanly -possible. to, succour the injured should 'be done ingtantly. With amazing speed and! efficiency the staff of the Jwystqn Priyate. Hbspitg.l, assisted not .only by. -locaf doctors-and ..nurses and sx-nurses,; ■but also by buteide nien a.iid womiSU; helpers, Ssta'blishid :.a casualty station at the kiosk in the Hastings race-; .course.. . -> ■■■- 1 Long 'before the usual hour; of tea. every one of the injured, perhaps. 100 in; number,’ not counting th6se privately; treated - • and ■ many others at the , nienlorial KbSpital, had been aocom-, •modated' in beds and stretchers'hurried-, 4y, brought from. p]scwhere, aiid, bad ,ieen dressed and tended, and fed, arid made comfortable. No less-- praiseworthy the . work ■ ■of, the Post arid. .Telegraph ..Depart--merit. - By six- o’clock a scheme for im-, provising a ! telegrdpli dispatch office had . been'developed, and within an hour haff been put into execution. All night long, with a continual, streani -of people waiting to send messages away, the staff worked without pause and without complaint, ffaeh telegram had to be read over a telephone to the operators at Waipukurau, from which town all local messages are at present being -transmitted. ■■. • -- - . ■ The first shift worked without a ■break for 26 hours, and the'office has continued night and day. In another improvised office, there is a steadily maintained pile of hundreds of telegrams which the postal staff, has •undertaken- to- deliver, Great eflofte to establish > a more workable conimunicatibn with the outside world should shortly be complete. . ■ .FIRES .-TAKE CONTROL. ' Heroic work was done by the; Hastings Firb Brigade, wllich .had to dig its way through, the; front of the fire station before the engine could be got out. Fires broke out at four points in •Main .Street, but the water - supply was very soon put out' of action and the 'fire'had to be allowed more or leas to •exhaust-itself.-i -A little later low pressure becamq available,'- and?the fires were reduced ■to ■ riiich proportions ' that they were comparatively. harmless.' . On Tuesday /night'? the town was severely rbeked by a, second tremor which' brought! down not only/ the small remaining part of the : Grand Hotel but also suspended parte of . other partly . demolished buildings throughout -- the tdwn.. ,soon afterwards a tiny flame was; noticed at a point which was one of the original four fires, abbpt 40 yards'-on the railway sido of thd.hptel. ■No water was available to check it, and indeed it looked so harmless that It was hardly- nbtiebd. - ■ - ■ ■' •Within a few minutes it had ’beconie a, hundredfold more menacing, and it whs only a matter of further minutes when the picket and firemen guarding the town realised that the situation had become dangerous. Only debris consisting of bfieks, mortar and crushed timbers served for fuel tp feed the flames, and it was thought at the time that it would serve as a barrier between them ' affd the unharmed two-storied Union.'Bank. However, the'fire spread down thik mate and, despite the efforts of a bucket brigade arid the firemen, wbtkirig under extreme difficulties, the flames eventually took charge and'gutted’the bank. The books and money had’ in the niean? time been removed by the picket. The fire turned the corner from Main, street into Karamu Road, and went on almost .unchecked through half a dozen partly destroyed wbbden and brick shops down to a two-storied brick arid concrete building owned by the ■Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Company. The flames were eventually checked- as they broke through tlie walls of the National Bank. That was at six o’clock on Wednesday morning, and the ■bank seemed safe. With a sudden burst, however, the flames broke out again, and mriapwhiie the limited water supply had run oqt* Once more the fire took complete control, and within a very' little while the bank was entirely cleaned out.