Page 4 Advertisements Column 3

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 89, 1 September 1948, Page 4

S. A. COLLIS . BUILDER Temporary Address, Ohope. NEW HOMES BUILT AT SHORT EST NOTICE. ALL CLASSES OF BUILDING ERECTED. ALTERATIONS. - Estimates Given.

BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published , Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 1, 1948 EMERGENCY PRECAUTIONS •v Today’s news records how smoothly the Red Cross Emergency organisation at Hamilton handled the job with which the Frankton tornado presented it. It qlso. brings to mind with added force the recent Chamber of Commerce proposal that this town should have a fully-organ-ised emergency precautions scheme always ready. The need to use if might never arise. One sincerely hopes it will no't. Still, it would have been handy in this year’s flood, for instance. There are several organisations which could combine for such a purpose, and the Chamber appointed a special committee to go into the matter and report back. No doubt, that committee has been working steadily : since then, and it is almost certain its efforts would have-met with the full support of the organisations it approached. ■ ' Still,, with this recent example of what the unexpected whirns of nature can bring in the way of unexpected disaster, it will do no harm to bring before the public once again the fact that there is a definite move afoot to establish an organisation that could function smoothly at a moment’s notice in any emergency. In a war, it is to be regretted that so many communities 'let their old war-time organisations slip quietly out of existence. It was natural, on a return to peace, to want to be rid of all reminders of war as soon as possible. But it would have been wise to remember that even the worst calamities have their lessons to teach and, if the war brought tragedy and disillusionment to many, ft also taught a lot about organisation and disciplined cooperative action for the common good. Admitted, too many wartime restrictions and reulations have been retained and bjuilt almost imperceptibly into our civil life until many of us have begun to smart under what we consider to be interferences with our rights and liberties as citizens. But one thing that could well have been retained intact and adapted to the needs of peace was the emergency precautions scheme. May the efforts of the Chamber of Commerce sub-committee prosper.