A COMMENDABLE ATTITUDE.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 March 1935, Page 6

A COMMENDABLE ATTITUDE.

The committee appointed to investigate and report on the losses sustained in the flood damage in New Plymouth is to be commended for the spirit of independence it has shown. By rather a strange co-incidence, on the same day that Mr. Justice Blair spoke to the Rotary Club about the traditional self-reliance of the Taranaki people, and the manner in which they had risen superior to the calamities that beset them by finding a way out for themselves instead of crying out for help, a meeting of flood sufferers endorsed his remarks in. a practical manner. Most of those comprising the New Plymouth flood damage committee represent Arms or organisations that suffered more or less serious loss in the flood, but do not intend to claim relief. In other words, they have decided to carry their own loss. The purpose of their activity, according to yesterday’s meeting, is to endeavour to help the most necessitous eases that are not in a position to carry their loss. The need of these people is urgent and real, and the organised attempt to assist them is a manifestation of true community spirit. If that assistance can be obtained without calling on the Government for a grant, so much the better. Tire Mayor has been asked to take up the matter, and an art union has been suggested. Whatever the course finally decided on, it would be a fine gesture to the rest of New Zealand if a direct -appeal for help from the State exchequer could be avoided and assistance still be afforded to those in urgent need of it. Bom in boom times and nurtured by political exigency, the run-to-the-Government complex has developed in New Zealand into a pernicious disease. Whereas there are cases of quasi-national dire calamity when such action would be justifiable—the replacement of expensive bridges throughout the province of Taranaki that have been washed away or damaged in the, flood is a case in point—the New Plymouth damage on this occasion falls chiefly into the different category of private loss. In remedying it the community has an excellent opportunity of vindicating His Honour’s remarks and displaying the worthy characteristics that animated the sturdy pioneers.