ON A PEACE BASIS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 98, 11 August 1944, Page 5

ON A PEACE BASIS

LOCAL E.P.S. OAFANISATION

DUTY WHEN CALLED UPON

Mr B. S. Barry (chief warden) presided at a meeting of the general committee of the Borough E.P.S., which took place last Thursday. Others present were: Mrs F. M. Dallas and Messrs Good, Eggers, Farre.ll, Doggett, Caisley and Saunders (secretary). Apologies were received from Messrs Brockett, Thomas Buddie, Cutler and Cummings. A letter was received from the Minister of Internal Affairs suggesting that as the need* for a wartime E.P.S. had ceased to exist that the service be reorganised on a peace tiimc pasis. Mr Barry stated that in his view it would be impossible and not altogether advisable to maintain a full scale active, organisation and that a skeleton organisation comprising the present controllers and deputy controllers should suffice for future needs. Possible, emergencies would be flood which could be handled by the Borough staff with, necessary assistance; epidemic, which was always a possibility but of which sufficient warning should here be given to enable a skeleton staff to organise and meet, the position; earthquake, against which emergency an effective skeleton organisation should be able to organise, with the. assistance of the hospital staff, Red Cross and nursing aids, and St. John Ambulance, within a reasonable time. The meeting resolved "That the local emergency precautions service be retained on a peace-time basis to the extent that unit controllers and deputy controllers: remain permanently in. office, those leaving the district from time to time to be replaced, and that personnel in the various units be advised that they will be expected to> report for duty if called upon."