NELSON NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 35, 11 February 1931, Page 16

NELSON NEWS

EARTHQUAKE KEFUUEES

LATE CAPTAIN STUART

(From Our Own Correspondent.) NELSON, 10l.li February. Up to lliis morning 3(5 HawUos. Buy refugees had arrived in kelson. Thoy have boon assisted to pre-arranged destinations! with friends, or provided for by the local Bed Cross Committee. At; yesterday's meeting olj the Cawthron Instituto Trust JJoard the i'ullowijig resolution was carried: "Tliat the Cawthron Institute Trust JJoard, consisting of representatives of botli Houses of the Legislature, Nelson City, the Nelson Harbour Board, Waiinea County, and the diocese of Nelson, expresses its profound sympathy with the townspeople of Napier, Hastings, Gisborne, Wairoa, Waipukurau, Waipawa, afnd Dannevirke in the severe and tragic losses suffered by them in the recent earthquake catastrophe, especially with all those suffering bereavement and physical injury. Tliat a copy of this resolution be sent to each of the Mayors of the towns mentioned, with the assurance that the kindly, generous, and practical sympathy given the Nelson and the West Coast areas at the time when they suffered from a similar disaster is still, and will ever bo, remembered. The Nelson College has offered free accommodation of five boys and live girls from the Hawkes Bay district, and regrets that, owing to the earthquake destruction of 1929 there is not more accommodation available. Dr. S, A. Gibbs, president of the Nelson Automobile Association, was welcomed back from his holiday trip to England by Mr. C. M. Kout, vicepresident of the association at its meeting last evening. In thanking members for the welcome home, Dr. Gibbs said the association had not reached the 10,00 membership mark, which he had wished to see before his return. However, the 135 new members nominated that evening brought the total membership to 860; and he hoped the end of the year would sec 1000 names on the membership list. Dr. Gibba considered New Zealand's system of signposting as good as any system in the world. At Home it was difficult to find a road which was not tar-sealed. "The glory of England and many parts of the Continent is in the trees along the roadsides —roads much narrower than ours," he said. Mr. W. J. Moffatt has been re-elect-ed chairman of the Cawthron Institute Trust Board. Captain A. M. Stuart, who, with his son,'was drowned" on Sunday morning off Capo Tcrawhiti when the_ fishing launch Islander overturned in the "rip" off the cape, was well known in Nelson, particularly on account of his ten years' association with the Anchor Shipping Company. Captain Stuart came to New Zealand as mato on the Anchor Company's steamer Kaitoa, which arrived in Nelson in October, 1909. While employed by the company he rose to the position of master, first of the Kennedy and then of the Waimea. Always fascinated by the life of a fisherman, Captain Stuart retired from the company in 1919 to follow this occupation. However, on the purchase of tho Kennedy by Messrs. Levin and Co., he joined that firm and again became the skipper of his old ship. About two years ago he again started fishing, and continued in this occupation until the unfortunate accident on Sunday, which cost him, and his son, their lives.' When the steamer Waimea, of which Captain Stuart was master, was off Farewell Spit on a voyage from Wanganui to Greymouth, in October, 1918, a mine was sighted, and an unsuccessful at- | tempt made to explode it. Eventually it sank. - j