IMMEDIATE ACTION

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 32, 7 February 1931, Page 12

IMMEDIATE ACTION

The Government has , earned the thanks of the community for the promptitude with which it has given a decisive lead in earthquake relief. The people who are giving generously wish their donations to be of the utmost help to-the distressed. The utmost help means attention to immediate needs, as well as provision for later restoration. But immediate help must also be orderly and considered. The funds must be properly controlled to assure that there shall neither be delay, in making them available nor that they shall be flung around heedlessly so that the sufferers whose claims are last made are unable to obtain assistance. The' Government has already appointed a competent central commitI tee to guide this control and to ad-: minister the fund and disburse: it through executive officers and, local committees. For urgent: cases grants are to .be made at once from the Consolidated Fund. We cannot expect the complete organisation to be built up in a day- or two; but the basis has already been established soundly. On that basis building may proceed methodically. J New Zealand will fully endorse' ! Mr. Ransom's declaration that this' is a national responsibility.' As he ' states, the loss to the community is so great that it is impossible to expect rehabilitation without very gen- j i erous financial assistance from the | ! Government. The form of that assist-, anco cannot be determined until the : restoration task is fully surveyed, | and some account taken of the prob- v able cost and the best plans to follow.* If, however, the administrative machinery is perfected in the meantime it will greatly simplify the ! relief operations when a survey has made planning possible. The programme should be: first, relief of urgent cases •of distress, and then ordered restoration. The Government's initial action gives us confidence in its capacity to carry the work through efficiently.