TO DISPENSE RELIEF

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

TO DISPENSE RELIEF

ORGANISATION FORMED

DISTRIBUTION OF MONEY

(By. Telegraph.—Press Association.) HASTINGS, 7th . February. A properly constituted organisation to take charge of the administration of relief funds was formed this morning. It will control Napier and Hastings. This step was the outcome of a conference attended by the Hon. A. J. Stallworthy, the Hon. J. G. Cobbe, Mr. Mitchell, of the Treasury Department, and the Mayors of the two towns. Otherwise than financially the present organisation is entirely satisfactory and has the situation well in hand. It is satisfactory to know that provision has been made at this early moment to gqyern the distribution of monetary contributions. The people will no doubt feel reassured by this action.' ■ The nucleus of each organisation consists of the local Mayor ,or chairman, with the local Public Trust officer and two business men as advisory members. Each regional executive will control financial administration throughout the whole of its own affected area. , Asked whether he had any knowledge of. what steps the banks and PoVt Office Savings Bank were taking to arrange finance' locally, Mr. Stallworthy said that for the present moment there was not the slightest need for earthquake victims to feel any financial anxiety. Everything necessary to maintain life in ordinary comfort and safety without charge is already available, and, as stated, financial relief was being organised. , Mr. Stallwortby referred to headlines and some newspaper reports which he considered reflected on a brave people who had stood up with marvellous fortitude to a most crushing calamity-, and who had evolved a miracle of organisation. The Minister's remarks referred in. particular to newspaper references erroneously reporting the establishment of martial law in Hastings.