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Taranaki Daily News, 14 March 1935, Page 15

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COUNCIL CANNOT ACT. DISTRESS CAUSED BY FLOOD. At a special meeting yesterday the New Plymouth Borough Council decided that it did not possess sufficient information to express an opinion as to whether oi- not it was necessary to establish a fund for the relief of necessitous cases arising out of the recent floods. Councillors stated that they were aware of many cases in which • personal effects and bedding of residents along the Mangaotuku Stream had been washed away by the flood waters bpt no information on which definite action could be taken had come forward. A letter had been received from the flood relief committee of the New Plymouth Retailers’ Association requesting the council to initiate some such scheme. The Mayor stated that when the matter had come up previously he suggested to the relief committee that a meeting should be arranged between committeemen and the council to discuss the entire position and investigate it. Owing, perhaps, to misunderstanding, the meeting had never come about. Cr. T. P. Anderson remarked that it had been his impression that some application to the Government for assistance had been intended. There did not seem much chance that such a representation would have been successful. Loss by flood was not, of course, the responsibility of either the borough or the Government, but relief of distress was another matter. Mr. F. T. Bellringer (town clerk) said that he understood the Red Cross had given relief in cases of severe distress. The Miyor: Yes. They gave blankets, clothing and boots when people had had their private effects washed away.