AUSTRALIAN FUND.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20168, 21 February 1931, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN FUND.

BELATED ' * 'ORGANISATION. . . " " a." > C*ROIIOUR" OWJC CORMSPOKBB?!-j • 1 ' 'i'> fJ \ close 'relations esdstiug' Australia and!, New Zealand .vfere' erix- . phasised by the* evbnts that fol- x_ lowed the terrible earthquake! in 1 ( H&wke's It. Is" "that < there are at least 50,000 New 3e|ilapd- v ezs in Australia,' 30,000 of>them'-being , in Sydney tremendous interest and f real 1 Borrbtr,. and'the casualty list • was, studied • thousands with' the deepest anxibty. ■, Every day special buMetinsjwere^ppstea.. ; on the windows of r theN®w. Zealand ( offices in- Melbourne and Sydney, pna' t the NewJiZealand' represeiitativ.es were { called upon to answer. ,tb'otisands; ( ;o'£., enquiries from anxious relativeSk <, , ,The newspapers spared no expense in , securing the "latest details, direction made full use of'the wireless t telephone. .One paper in -Sydney booked calls' to every town between Napier and" Wellington,', and its best story came from a survivor who arrived at Masterton 'the day after the earth-, quake with his motor-car witliwounded., .Other stories came f«"nDannevirke, Waipukurau, and Pahnerston North, and there were' in addition wireless tblephone" messages, from Auckland', and Wellington, , were the Sydney papers quick to realise; the news value .of the dreadful cataSn trophe. Australia fpit• the' { deepest sympathy for'her sister "Dominion. '?iIf the relief ''funds? th&t •are being< raised in Sydney do' not-'reach a substantial total- the people must not be, blamed. There'would- haye.^een, a ready response if a' request to - coiitri-' bute had' been.made promptty. This

reason for this delay » , difficult to understand,- and in spine qu4rteTß .it iß' felt that 'the 1 ' at the New Zealand office were to Ijlame. It'is re- ! ported that, cold water was thrown on i early suggestions that's*.fund'should b'e opened for the relief of suffering. Finally, four days after the. disaster the "Loi'd Mayor" was .approached' ■ bers of the New Zpaland Association Hfe Sydney, an i he agreed to., call a public meeting.:- The- organigatiou\ meititbcti was lax, and the rcstffc^wiU