REDRESS DEMANDED

Evening Star, Issue 20134, 26 March 1929, Page 13

REDRESS DEMANDED

Flood Sufferers Combine Condemnation of Local Bodies - j' Repeated Warnings Not Taken Fighting Fund For Damage Claims Although the fixing of the blame was suggested as one of the subjects for discussion at the meeting of flood sufferers in the Albany Street School last night, no blame was sheeted home to any particular body. The schoolroom was packed, and many people listened to proceedings from the windows and doors. The sufferers were loud in their complaints of alleged inaction in tho protective methods which should have been adopted by the City Council and the Harbour Board, and wero emphatic that legal action should be taken to obtain fitting compensation. It was stated that over £1,200 was already available as a fighting fund for the engaging of a leading barrister in Wellington to claim against the local bodies.

The Convener (Mr T. Cornish) said that those who had t suffered b,y the flood would have to get busy. Somebody had o pay, and pay pretty heavily. Some of them had lost practically everything, and quite a lot of people who were involved in the last two floods had absolutely nothing. Somebody had to compensate them for their losses. The people wanted to know why three openings were left in the Leith walls, why the dam was let in, and why Harbour Board employees were at work sandbagging Gregg’s store on Tuesday afternoon. (Applause.) Mr Cornish then asked Mr G. P. Cuttriss to take the chair.

(Applause.) The city’s assets were valued at over LI, OOO,QUO. The citizens had expressly stated that they did not want the reserves to be spent on a Town Hall, and the council should be made to see that it could also easily provide £IOO,OOO to make good the damage caused by the flood. (Applause.) PRECAUTIONS NOT TAKEN. Sufficient precautions had not been taken in providing for the outlet of the Leith and the harbour waters when the foreshore was reclaimed, said Mr Cuttriss. There should have been three outlets for the Leith in the form of a delta. The Leith had overflowed its walls, which were criminally low aud insufficiently strong. The raising of the site of the Albany Street School was wrong, and that area had made the flow of water into adjoining properties a miniature Niagara. The-first work of the new council would be the raising of the wall; and it would not use dead trees to reinforce the wails. (Laughter.) He thanked certain men for their initiative in calling the meeting, by which the residents would show that they. would not take their losses lying down, as they did In 1923. “ The city must be made 'Safe, and if those appointed administrators fail to observe the first law they must be held responsible,” said Mr Cuttriss. The object of the meeting was to prevent a„similar disaster in the future, said Mr P. Neilson. Through publicity they should compel the local bodies to complete the works authorised. The failure to finish the works had resulted in the disastrous conditions. After the 1923 flood the local bodies said the city would not have another visitation in the next forty years; but in fourteen days there was a repetition. A Voice; You cannot keep the Pacific Ocean back. Mr Neilson: But we should try to keep 'it from going up the Leith. Tlie Interjector: And you cannot do that, either. Mr Neilson: I know what I am talking about. 1 lived there at the time. The Voice: And so did I. BOARD FREQUENTLY REMINDED. The frequent reminders given the Harbour Board of the necessity of the work were recounted by Mr Neilson. On his return from England the board’s engineer stated that he thought the work would be finished on his return. It had not even been started. When the board was considering the reduction of its staff the engineer said the residents on the north side of the Leith were agreeable to the aising of the wall, and the men could be put on that work. But the delay was considerable, and in the end only two chains or the wall, from Forth street to Harbour terrace, were raised. For the work there were more men available now than ever before. A highlyeducated engineer was not required to see that the labour placed the cement in the walls. A Voice: But it takes a good dog to mix the cement. (Laughter.) The depreciation of Ins property and the sudden departure of a tenant after the recent flood were the subjects of comment by Mr Neilson. “That is not the flood,” he was reminded. Mr Nei|son continued that the working people were paying for their homes in the flood area, and they could not find homes elsewhere. (“ Hear, hear ”). Those in authority had failed to solve the housing problems. < One resident had threatened dire action if he met the Harbour Board’s engineer. Mr Furkert’s report had been borne out. The Leith walls were not high enough to carry the flood. The reports stated that the drains worked perfectly. If that was so, then nothing hut the water from the Leith had caused the damage. The Harbour Board aud City Council had fought like schoolboys over the repairing of a bridge. Lives might have been lost through the delay over the dispute. When Mr Cornish had asked the firemen and workers to help him to clean out a drain after the flood they had refused. From the Hall: They could not be everywhere. REDRESS DEMANDED. So tong as the local bodies saw that the residents were not determined no redress would be made, said Mr Neilson.- After the meeting the local bodies would realise that the residents were determined to obtain compensation. He appealed that a new council and Harbour Board should be elected. A Voice: Cr Clark said that the citizens of Dunedin were not civilised.

The limited accommodation of the hall was regretted by Mr Cuttriss, who said it was a great pity that the convening of a meeting of this description was necessary. The first duty- of the City Council was to give an assurance to the citizens affected by the flood that they would be no worse off than they wero before the visitation. The calling of the meeting should have been carried out by other than those whose time' might have been better employed in endeavouring to clean their homes. Pressure had been brought to bear on the local authorities to expedite the protection work, but, sad to say, the work had not been prosecuted as vigorously as it could have been. The present resultant inconvenience could have been obviated if those in authority had taken immediate steps to make the conditions of tho people comfortable. (“Hear, hear.”) Mr J. Munro, a member of both the City Council and the Harbour Board, was present, and his interest in the welfare of the community was unquestioned. At the same time, he was a member of those bodies whicli had shirked their bounden moral duty in that they had shouldered the Relief Committee with tho work. H© doubted whether the council and board could morally and honourably shift the duties, so evident immediately the waters of the Leith overflowed the walls, on to voluntary workers. NO HARSH CRITICISMS. “ It was their duty not to set up a relief committee and to receive donations from firms, but to apply themselves or set the machinery in motion in order that relief might have been given at the earliest x>ossible moment instead of this house-to-house canvass to ascertain whether people, were, in need of soup,” said Mr Cuttriss, “ Now, I take it that wo are not gathered her© to-night to sympathise with on© and the other. 'We are all sufferers, and we are not going to condole. I also suggest that we do not harshly criticise. We have been brought up to respect old age, and senile decay has set in with the members of the City Council and the Harbour Board. (Applause.) They are approaching tno end of their tenure of office, and possibly the end of their lives. If they were here to-night their lives might be quickly terminated. We should consider action of a constructive character.” Tho first of the suggestions made was “ That we consider the possibility of sheeting home the blame for this awful catastrophe.” Somebody, he said, was responsible, and it was for the residents to express their own minds. A Voice: The Harbour Board, “ Yes, down this end.” said another. The Chairman: You will have an opportunity of saying something a little later. We have also to consider how the waste and damage is going to bo replaced and repaired. ‘1 Sue the Harbour Board,” was a suggestion. _ Mr Cuttriss said an additional claim of 10 per cent, should be made as compensation for the inconvenience and discomfort, loss of home life, “and quit© a number of other things.” (Apand “Hear, hear.”) Further, they had to insist that necessary precautions be taken to prevent a recurrence of the calamity. Voices: Too right. CARELESSNESS OR THOUGHTLESSNESS. The 1 Evening Star ’ had editorially that night condemned the council and Harbour Board. It was not as if the bodies had not had warning. Mr Furkert, Ehgineer-in-Chief of the Public Works Department, had reported that in the event of a recurrence of the 1923 flood, the bodies would require to shoulder the responsibility. , The council and board would be asked to measure up their responsibilities, largely m consequence of gross carelessness and negligence, for which the people were suffering. It was carelessness or thoughtlessness. (“Hear, hear.”) It would appear that the council and board were alone responsible. The board was responsible from the harbour to the Forth street bridge, and the council from the bridge up stream. He did not know how the local bodies could repudiate the responsibilities now resting so her vily upon them. Skilled labour was not essential for the cleaning up, said Mr Cuttriss, and every unemployed man and woman should have been-engaged immediately the flood waters subsided to clean the detritus from the stream and to make less unwholesome the homes of many people. Those homes were in an insanitary condition.. Unless those matters were urgently attended to, there was a possibility of an outbreak of a very serious nature, which would probably mean the loss of life, not only in the flooded areas, "But throughout the city. The outbreak would be as serious and "idespread as the epidemic of pneumonic influenza. Discussing the need lor adequate compensation, Mr Cuttriss said the City Council had sufficient funds. Dunedin was recognised as a wealthy city (and they were proud of that), but they were not proud of the manner in which the wealth was being handled.

The housing conditions revealed by the flood were an absolute disgrace to civilisation. (“Hear, hear.”) The city should have been cleaned up. He then went on to condemn the City Council, and admitted that he was doing some electioneering. He moved—- “ That this meeting of residents strongly urges on the Harbour Board and City Council the immediate necessity ot prosecuting the work of raising the walls of the Leith Canal so as to dispel any further fear of a repetition of the recent disastrous conditions left as a result of the flood; it also considers that those who suffered, in many cases losing everything, should be compensated for same, for the reason that if the work' had been pushed on- expeditiously, much of the suffering would have been obviated.” Mr A. Reeves seconded the motion. Mr Barton said he had lived in the locality for twenty-eight years, and after the'l923 flood the residents had not taken the suffering lying down. A meeting of the householders was held in the school ball, but it was poorly attended. He had waited on a leading solicitor, and he had poo-poohed the idea of the householders obtaining

compensation. Mr Barton said an .excellent scheme for flood prevention in the Lower Leith had been outlined by Mr Edmund Auscombe in a house problem article in the ‘ Evening Star ’ on July 7, 1923. Mr Barton admitted that he had posted a notice outside his house calling on the citizens to vote in a new City Council and Harbour Board, and on Sunday he had addressed a crowd of 200 for three-quarters of an hour. Ho had asked Mr Wilkie what he proposed to do about the valuations of the leases this year. Mr Wilkie had said, “We have improved your property out of sight,” and he had replied, ‘‘ Yes, wo will soon be out of sight.” (Laughter.) He urged that the ratepayers should demand that a new engineer be engaged by the Harbour Board. The present attitude of the board was enough to make a citizen jump up and never come down. They could do little, as the workers were the main sufferers. They should not submit, in 1929, to things being done in the old orthodox way. “We should not suffer those people who' have outlived their usefulness,” he declared, amid applause. WITH PUBLIC OPINION. “ I deplore the flood as much as anvbody,” said Mr J. W. Munro, M.P. “ I know quite a lot about the finances of the City Council, but I would like to know where Mr Cuttriss gets his information. I have been unable to find it out. There is no doubt in my mind that the local bodies are morally responsible.” A Voice; Absolutely. “Just a minute,” replied Mr Munro. “ I want to point out this position from the City Council’s standpoint. There were further interruptions arid a call for order was made. Mr Munro said that the owner of every property abutting on the Leith owned to the centre of the stream. Owing to those riparian rights the City Council had no right to go into the river. An Interjector: That is wrong. Mr Munro: Well, I got the information from the Town Hall this morning. Ask them to investigate the original land titles and you will see that I am right. Another: You are quite right. Mr Munro said he did not care how much money was spent in repairing the damage, but would the ratepayers foot the bill ? A Chorus; No.

It would take £1,000,000 to prevent a repetition of the flood, said Mr Munro. He was not an engineer, and therefore he would not criticise the experts. As a member of the Harbour Board, he had repeatedly brought up the matter of the raising of the wall. He was satisfied that if the wall_ had been raised the lower portions of Union street and Harbour terrace would not have suffered to such an extent. “Why was one span left open?” asked a man. “I. have failed to get an answer yet,” replied Mr Munro. “But you have an engineer,” retorted the questioner. Mr Munro said he had asked the engineer why he had erected the wall if a gap was to be left. The engineer had replied that the gap could not be closed till the wall was finished. “Bosh!” came loudly from the back of the hall. “That may be so,” continued Mr Munro, who said a temporary gate to close the gap when flood threatened should have been provided. He did not care whether they wiped out the Harbour Board and City Council, with him included, so long as public opinion was aroused to bring such pressure to bear on the local bodies to give compensation to those flooded out and ruined. Public opinion was the only method by which they could progress. He was with public opinion, even if it were against him. lie had done his best, and would contnue to do his best, to protect the lives and property of the people. He hoped the evidence of public opinion in the municipal and political lilo would continue after the flood agitation. Tito people would not vote. _ “ Although it is cruel to say it,” said Mr' Munro, “ we deserve what wo get, because we do not attend to our own business.” *Hear, hear, and applause.) FLOOD AND OTHER MATTERS. Mr D. Minnock, who had interjected frequently while Mr Munro was speaking, proposed another motion, as he considered Mr Neilson’s motion insufficient in its scope. A Voice: Who do you think is to blame for the flood. (Laughter.) Mr M. Silverstono said local bodies avoided their responsibilities legally. He moved—“ That this meeting recommends to the deputy-mayor (in the absence of the mayor) to get into touch with the Prime Minister (Sir Joseph Ward) and see if he could stay sufficiently long in Dunedin on his return journey to make an inspection of the damage done as a result of the Hood; and if the law is in any way defective, ami preventing the people from justly claiming compensation, then wo urge such amendment to the law as to allow of such being claimed. And, further, that this representative meeting of residents between the railway station and Logan Park condemns the inaction of tlie Dunedin City Council and the Harbour Board in not making the area safe to live in, and is of tlie opinion that the council and hoard jointly must pay full compensation for the damage by the flood; and that we submit claims for same. Further, we call on the citizens to wake up to their responsibilities and elect men whose policy will be safety first and safety always.” Mr Silverstonc elaborated on the arguments of class legislation and the Labour Party’s policy for several minutes without being called to order. Tlie Chairman ruled that no further reference should be made to the elections. No one should use the meeting for electioneering purposes. (Applause.) From the door: “ I want to know whom are you going to blame—the City Council or tlie Harbour Board?” His persistency was apparently irritating, for somebody replied; “ The Education Board.” Mr W. Colvin said that by Act of Parliament last year the Leith was vested in the City Council. _ Only three property holders, including the University, had claimed their riparian rights. He suggested that a strong committee of intelligent men .should be formed to assess the damage and obtain a legal opinion. The Chairman announced that the people would not he called on to provide a fighting fund, as already £1,200 had been promised by firms. The two motions were taken together and carried unanimously. COMMITTEE ELECTED. The following committee was then appointed;—Messrs P. Neilson, H. Barton, sen., W. Colvin, T. Cornish, D. Minnock, A. K. Beeves, F. Lee, J. W. Munro, M.P.. W. Marslin, G. P. Cuttriss, G. Geddes, J. Broadfoot, Mesdames Jones, Neilson, Cornish, E, Davidson, J. Stewart, Knewstubb, Collett. ■ When a man was nominated, somebody said he was the best man in the room but a council employee, and he might lose his job if lie was on the committee. His name was struck out. Votes of thanks were passed to all the voluntary workers who had helped the householders, and three- cheers were given for Elsie Stewart, a member of the Knox Girls’ Guides, who was reported to have saved three "children fiom drowning. At a meeting of the committee held

deputy mayor and tile dßelicl Committee at ll).ao to-day, and'to meet the town clerk and city engineer at 2 p.m. in connection with the cleaning oi the bed of the Leith and other matters. _ The oxentive will hold a meeting in the Albany Street School at 6.30 p.m. to-morrow.

subsequently, the following Executive | t Committee was set up to deal witli the | I whole matter; —Messrs Cuttriss (chair- j I man),. Min nock (secretary), Lee (trea- i surer), - Williamson, Colvin, Monro, ! I and Cornish. Messrs Cuttriss, Klin nock, and i Munro .were deputed to wait on the 1 V ■ ■