RIOT DAMAGE

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 38, 15 February 1933, Page 10

RIOT DAMAGE

\ ■ '■ ,' COMPENSATING SUFFERERS

COMMITTEE'S RECOM-

MENDATION

The opinion that, legislation .should be introduced in New Zealand providing for some system of compensation for business people who suffer damage to. their property as a-result of riots was expressed by; the Public Petitions Committee in the House of Representatives yesterday, when, reporting favourably on the petition of F. C. Knott and sixteen others, of Auckland, asking for reasonable compensation for alleged loss and damage arising out of the Auckland riots. The Committee suggested that some provision should be made to deal with cases of proved hardship of those per-> sons who suffered damage in. the Auckland riots. Mr. F. W. Schramm (Labour, Auckland East) supported the recommendation of the Committee. During the. last riots in Auckland business people in Karangahape Road and Queen Street suffered a considerable amount of damage, and many of .them were in a small way, he said. At present there was no provision in the law for compensatingthese people out of the Consolidated Fund. There jvas, of course, provision for_ people who suffered damage taking action against those responsible, but in the case of the Auckland and Wellington riots the damage was committed by irresponsible persons on' the one hand and the criminal classes on the other. It had been estimated that the damage done in Auckland amounted to £100,000, and that was a total loss so far as the business people were concerned. In England people who suffered damage were entitled to compensation out of a special fund, and it seemed that the Government would be well advised to make similar provision in New Zealand. - "I trust that the Government will not overlook the . recommendation of the Committee," said Sir. W. E. Parry (Labour, Auckland ' Central). The damage had been caused by people who had had some altercation with the law, but the business people who had suffered had had to accept the whole of' the responsibility. That seemed to him to be most unfair. ; Mr. A. J. Stallworthy (independent, Eden) urged the Government to. give serious consideration to the Committee's finding. One of the most unhappy circumstances of the riots in Auckland was that innocent people had to bear the brunt of the affair. It was a fact that.some of the business pedple in Queen Street who had suffered had been most sympathetic to the unemployed. Many of the people who had suffered were in a small way, and had been placed almost on the brink of ruin as a result of the damage. The report was tabled. , ,