AID FOR NAPIER

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 31, 6 February 1931, Page 14

AID FOR NAPIER

BELIEF PARTIES ASHORE

REFUGEES EVACUATED

(By "The Post's" Spooial Reporter.) AUCKLAND, sth February. The overseas vessels loading in the roadstead at Napier at the titno of the cataclysm were the Federal steamer Northumberland and the Shaw-Savill motor liner Taranaki. Immediately after the earthquake occurred the masters of both ships wirelessed to the commander of H.M.S. Veronica to the effect, "Can we assist?" Replies were received intimating that. help ashore and medical necessaries .and food wero urgently required. Relief parties were sent in charge of officers from both ships. Provisions were supplied in necessary quantities from the ships, which drew on their stores of condensed milk, sugar, ship's bread and fresh bread, canned meats, and jams, and especially of lamps, candles, and electric torches, for . portable lights were urgently necessary in the rescue work, as there was no other light available except the moon, which was at the full. Altogether some fifty men were sent ashore from the Northumberland and Taranaki, and with them the surgeon of the' former ship. These helpers -consisted of ships 1 officers, engineers, electricians, stewards, .seamen, and engine-room hands, but every man aboard the ships was eager to go and would have gone, perhaps, had the shipß been alongside. AT WORK ALL NIGHT. The parties were placed at the disposal of the officer commanding H.M.S. Veronica, and devoted themselves to obtaining food supplies from shops ashore for distribution to the afflicted people who were camping out, and to assisting in fire brigade work. These shore parties from the ships worked strenuously all night, returning on board their vessels in the forenoon on Wednesday. The Cumberland, which had come in during Wednesday, was also ordered to bo prepared to furnish men and stores if required, but she was not called upon to do so, and she finally left the roadstead. The master of the Taranaki, Captain C. Wood, and the captain of the Northumberland, Captain Upton, oa Wednesday were requested —and readily . agreed —to evacuate the wounded, the. former to Auckland and the latter to Wellington, but this was subsequently countermanded and they were asked to take off people fleeing from tho burning city. The Taranaki took aboard 17 women and four men, and the Northumberland also took some aboard, including babies. Boarding the ships was effected with great difficulty, not to say risks of serious injury, for a high sea was running at the time, tossing tho launches so that heavy spray swept completely over them, even into the cockpits. « EFFECTIVE MAKESHIFT. ' Before the fugitives arrived on the Taranaki sleeping accommodation had already been .provided for them in the shelter deck. The senior officer and chief steward, at the short notice of not much more than an hour, were ready to receive the unexpected passengers—between sixty and seventy, of them, as a matter of fact, for a party of over forty doctors and nurses troni Auckland who went to Napier in H.M.S. Dunedin and Diomede returned, as sufficient provision had been made by the time they arrived to care for the injured. At most the Taranaki will carry in comfort, say, a dozen passengers, but the resourcefulness of the ship's company enabled them to meet the1 emergency all as a matter of course, not only in. the matter of providing sleeping accommodation but. in furnishing meals for at least 24 hours for an addition of ovor 60 persons to the ship's company. Everyone on board the Ta'rauaki—officers and men of all ranks and grades—was animated by the sole purpose of assisting •the afflicted and doing his part to the utmost' of his ability in a national emergency. This was the spirit of both the relief parties which were sent ashore and those whose duties_ required them to remain aboard. Ship's officers, engineers, electricians, and stewards vacated their rooms for the unexpected contingency. The pressure put on • the ship's commissariat in providing meals for bo large a number found the staff fully equal to the. occasion. Except for the relays of meals, there ■was no noticeable departure from the routine of the domestic department. It was a fine example of organisation of food and shelter for so large a number of people at about an hour's notice. GOOD TIME TO AUCKLAND. The Taranaki made remarkably fine steaming time in the circumstances. On the run from Napier to Auckland her usual speed is fourteen and a half knots, but from the time she left till her arrival in Auckland at 8 o'clock this (Thursday) evening her ' speed avoraged fifteen knots. Mr. M'Cormack, a refugee, testified to the wonderful way that all on the Veronica did for the people at Port Ahuriri. "They were 'kindness itself to us. The ship was crowded with people, and everything possible," he said, "was done to calm them and feed them, and accommodate them in the limited space available." When the Taranaki arrived at Auckland a limited number of people was at the barriers. Together with police and ambulance men, Mr. Bi. E. Champtaloup, touring manager for tho Auckland Automobile Association, came aboard with an offer to convey refugees to anywhere they wished to go to, and he said that there were 500 cars available, that taxi-cabs offered a free Bervice, and also that the Citizens' Committee had arranged for siz thousand beds, if they were necessary. Lower Queen street was black with people from the gates of tho Queen's Wharf to Customs street, and an. ave--1 nuo was kept by tho police for tho ship's motor traffic. The comparatively few refugees were soon away from the ship; REFUGEES' GRATITUDE. Just before the Taranaki berthed, the refugees addressed a letter to Captain Wood and his officers and associates, stating: — "We sincerely offer our humble appreciation for your great kindness to us in our hour of need. We especially thank the chief steward and his staff for their untiring efforts to make us comfortable to the utmost of their means."