FROM STRICKEN AREA

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 32, 7 February 1931, Page 14

FROM STRICKEN AREA

COT CASES AND REFUGEES

TRAIN AND BOAT LOADS

About 243 refugees and 43 cot cases arrived in Wellington yesterday afternoon and early this morning by rail and sea. from Napier. About a hundred disembarked from the Buapehu, which berthed at the Aotea Wharf at 4.15 p.m. yesterday, and 80 refugees, in- addition to. ordinary s passengers, stepped off the first division of the Napier mail train which arrived at 8.30 last night, nearly four hours late. Before the arrival of this train the Thorndon Railway Station was cleared, and many hundreds of people waited outside for news of relatives or friends. .■ , Tho train contained several southbound passengers, and to enable them to connect with the Lyttelton ferry steamer the Wahine was delayed. The refugees were taken by motor-ear to the new railway goods shed, .some- distance . from . the station, and there they werg given refreshment, and arrange-' ments made for their billeting. The second division of the Napier mail' train .^rrived at 11 p.m., with 30 cot cases on board. The train was driven straight into the goods shed. After' being given refreshments and any attention they needed, the injured were transferred into waiting ambulances. ..,.-. The - next detachment from tho stricken area, comprising 13 cot cases and 63 refugees, arrived by spec Mil hospital train at 4.40 a.m. Similar arrangements had been made for the caring of the injured and refugees on that train.