RESTORATION THE WATCH-WORD

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 33, 9 February 1931, Page 10

RESTORATION THE WATCH-WORD

(By Our Special Reporter.)

"The King is dead —long live the King!" Tl'is old motto fits the situation in the carthquako area. There " have been heavy losses, but community continues. Individuals have died, but "thousands arc ready to step into their 'places. Terrible as the Napier-Hastings ' earthquake is, its ravages are not great —relative to the spirit and the resources of the community. And behind the local community . stand the people of New Zealand. The Dominion is behind Hawkes Bay. And it may be found that tho Empjire is behind the Dominion, financially and in other ways. Any kind of a balance-sheet that can be drawn" up, however loaded with debits, will show assets of a value that make tho losses insignificant. WINNING A GOOD FIGHT. The word "evacuation" has never had any meaning except as a temporary expedient to withdraw people (women . and children) who at the moment may not be effective working units, and whose temporary absence will reduce risk of pestilence without hindering the ■work of Restoration. The word to-day is not Evacuation, but Kestoration. Restoration includes renewal of communications, .water, drainage, light, power, etc. Given these, community life in the earthquake area can fight any earthquake aftereffects (fire, food shortage, pestilence, etc.). And if earthquake action shakes tho restored things down again, the spirit of Hawkes Bay and New Zealand will ■ restore them again. Nothing that has yet occurred has come within even a remote distance of making the area . untenable. Anyone •who examines the factors relatively will see, that clearly. Military people know the shock value of a surprise attack. Vfeii, Napier and Hastings met on Tuesday the most sudden surprise attack on record. The shake and the consequent fire damage they could not prevent. But the buildings that are burned cannot be burned, again, and the enemy cannot again have all the advantages of a surprise attack. RECURRING TREMORS. The defence organisation that began to grow the day after the paralysing surprise, and which is ■ still growing

BUILDERS SURPASS THE UN-BUILDER

with greater and greater momentum, is fur moro resilient to renewed attacks than was the peaceful community oil last Tuesday morning. .Besides,, there is every probability that the initial blow of tho enemy cannot be repeated. Established experience (including that of the last two years in the South Island) shows that minor and major post-earthquake shocks arc to be expected. But they mark a tapering off and not a workingup. On Thursday, looking at tho great rush northward of relief motor-cars on the Hawkes Bay main road, who would have thought that the Bailway Department would liavo restored rail communication with Napier inside of a fortnight? But—hey, presto, and the thing was done. There was magic in this restoration of a battered railway. And the same story will bo told' of water, drainage, electricity, etc. When Hastings was struck, its reticula-j tion of water pipes, drainage pipes, sewers, and light and power lines was struck. Operators' of these vital services were driven back from the reticulation to the. nerve-coutre, the power-house. Hero was generated the power to supply electric light and to work the pumps that lift the 'sewerage. COURAGE AT POWER-HOUSE. At this citadel of community' service, passers-by on Wednesday saw that the life spark lingered, and they marvelled that electric lights should be burning so soon after the Tuesday crash. And now comes information that tho men who kept tho flag flying in that Hastings power-houso did so in far more trying circumstances than the passerby realised. The building was more affected by earthquake than appeared from the outside. With cacli shock those men in the power-house ran a risk. But they could not run out as civilians would run out of a shaking wooden dwelling. They had to stick to.their post. And stick they did. Hence the spark at tho centre of the power system did not die out, aud presently it spread its rays abroad again as retieulative systems were restored to. a thankful pebple. The question is not how fast the carthquako can knock something down, but how fast we can put it up again. The machine is being restored at a rate that will.retrieve many losses, and the foundations of a new emergency finance—beginning with the State Fire Office action—are being prepared.