TO BE REBUILT?

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 31, 6 February 1931, Page 8

TO BE REBUILT?

NAPIEK'S- PROBLEM

SERIOUS QUESTIONS

(By "The Post's" Special Reporter.) NAPIEE, sth February. There is something dimly familiar but unreal and phantasmagorical about the street wreckage in Napier, until one realises that it is the similarity to ' , American war pictures, but there is nothing fanciful in the position which now faces the province. How are the 20,000 people of Napier to be rehabilitated? Theirs is not the casual 'backyard existence of the city dweller, to whom rubbish tins and flora have an all-too-common lack of appeal, but there is love of home such as the confined Wellingtonian cannot visualise. With a warm and sunny cliniate, Napier encourages bougainvillias, pepper ■ trees, cannas seven feet tall, and, indeed, almost a sub-tropical wealth of selection in garden beauties. Some of the loveliest gardens in New Zealand are found in all quarters of the town, while in the houses themselves there is a settled air, of comfort that bespeaks a deeply-rooted occupancy. What is to become of all these homes? As in' the case of Murchison, the evacuation of the town, for perhaps some different reasons, is becoming so general a topic that-it forecasts fulfilment. This is certain to be carried out as regards the women. With the town empty, except of patrols and caretakers, what action is to I>o taken by the Government to prevent Napier becoming as academic a memory as Thebes? ' THE FINANCIAL HURDLE. The difficulties arc ( enhanced by the fact that even before the earthquake i Hawkes Bay's affairs were in a bad way, and as a result the finances of many of Napier's businesses were very involved. Now the country surrounding the town will be equally financially troubled. There1 is a £15,000 country house of brick that is now merely a patch of grey debris as seen from the Great , South road, and this willhit the owner no harder . proportionately •: than the small "cow cockie" whose chimney lies either in his bed or across the bedroom floor. Low' prices were bad enough, but what now? One frequently hears the .pious hope expressed in,the streets that the Government will finance .the rebuilding of Napier, but of what use will that be unless it so assists the drought and price-hit farmers as to enable them to make' the building of business premises worth while. The problem is rendered' more acuteby the fact that the two rival towns; Hastings and Napier, within a dozen miles of each other, suffered equally. Had one alone been levelled by an earthquake, it is certain that the other would have languished into obscurity. Something must be done, however, or the illness will attack the physician. If the 20,000 Napier residents were, permanently evacuated, they would merely become a charge on the State. MUST HAVE A HARBOUR. Those who are inclined to leave the people of stricken Hawkes Bay to solve their own salvation would do well ,to realise that the present position cannot be permitted to continue. Hawkes Bay must be given its urban centre:and at present it has none. Much may depend on whether the port of Napier has been temporarily, put out of business by the rise in the coastline. Without a port it would' seem that Hastings, proportionately as extensively damaged as Napier, would have equal claims to reconstruction, and 'the question of rebuilding only one of these places might arise. The immediate practical problems arc sufficient in themselves to engage the attention of the Government. Sewers, water, gas, and electrical supplies will all have to be relaid. It is of no use doing this until the ground! has ceased moving, or the work will have to be done again. With Takaka as an example, nine months would bo a brief period to allow for this. To relay the mains and reticulation of all the , ser-' vices would take an army of artisans I about the' same period if ,'the work' I were rushed.' Then there is the reconditioning of the wooden houses, not so simple a -matter as it appears, and meaning in many cases partial or completo dismemberment before rebuilding can commence. There are still people, howover, who talk of remaining in Napier and carrying on. It is doubtful if the health authorities will permit this when a week or two has brought out the menace to health that must follow. The water supply alone is a drawback to continued occupation of Napier.