EARTHQUAKE RELIEF

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 278, 24 November 1931, Page 8

EARTHQUAKE RELIEF

MR COATES AT NAPIER FACING THE PROBLEMS [ Per Press Association. ] NAPIER, Nov. 23. Speaking here to-night Mr J. G. Coates said, that the additional cost to the Government arising out of tho earthquake will be .1500,000 for restoration of and repairs to roads, schools and public buildings, £150,000 for re-surveys and restoration of land transfer titles and records. Thu State Fire Office decided to meet all claims for damage du/ to firo in the montn of February last, and all claims re ceived and inquired into had been met. In all the total expenditure from public funds will amount to upwards of £2,250,000 Applications received by the RehabJitation Committee set. up under the Hawke’s Bay Earthquake Act total approximately 1200 to date, the amount of assistance appliei lor being about £2,000,000. The committee, which has a difficult task in dealing with many complicate.! applications. is working as expeditiously is postible. The committee holds the view that the re-erection of buildings should be the first consideration, and therefore concentrated its efforts on applications for that purpose. The most recent figures indicate that the loans granted will total £383,560, and grants £11,660, making a total of £395,220. Where assistance was given by way of loan, either for reinstatement of buildings or replacement of stock-in-trade and equipment, the terms had been made exceptionally easy. Loans for the most part were free of interest up to five years. In special cases loans were made free of interest, the principal being .repaid by easy annual instalments. Eacii case was treated strictly on its merits. In addition to the specific provision mentioned, wide powers were conferred upon the Governor-General-in-Coun-cil to make regulations to provide for many emergency conditions which arose as a consequence of the earthquake.

Mr Coates considered that much had been done, and at a time when the Government itself was facing serious financial difficulties, and more had yet to be done in various directions before Napier would be restored to the proud position it held formerly. What had been done by the Government and by outside organisations did nd re-’ present the sum total of all that had been done in Napier, Hastings, and other parts of the province. The people of Hawke’s Bay had set to with a will to help themselves, and with the assistance, of the Government had worked wonders. Tho fact that the population is now greater than before the earthquake might well bo regarded as a remarkable circumstance if one did not know the fine spirit of the people, their unshakable confidence in their town and district, and their determination to restore the beauty for which it had been so renowned.

"The courage displayed by the people a few months ago,” said Mr Coates, "is the courage we want today right throughout the country in the meeting of problems of a different kind but nevertheless serious.”

Mr Coates added that the principal payments from £380,000 in voluntary contributions were: Food, clothing, sustenance and general relief: £51,800, Hastings £26,200; reconstruction of dwellings, Napier £87,800, Hastings £33,600, Wairoa and Central Hawke’s Bay £BBOO. Interest earned on the Relief Fund to the end of September was £7200.