JAPANESE DISASTER.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 October 1923, Page 1

JAPANESE DISASTER.

I!ECOXSTR UCTIOX COST*. AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. TOKIO, October 22. Premier Cato states the cost of testoring the Government and City Council properties and buildings in 'J'okio excluding the properties of private persons, will he £350.000.0)0. of win- It two hundred million will be required for the Government properties. His view was that £200.000,000 would be icquired to renstrucl the city as a political and cultural city, and a hundred and fifty millions to reconstruct it as a commercial and industrial city. quite apart from the cost of reconstruction of private properties. It was estimated the former scheme of reconstruction would take more than ien years. He hoped the industrial reconstruction scheme would he accomplished in six or seven years, Some ol the cost ol restoration as a commercial and industrial city will have to be obtained by foreign loans, some by domestic. His personal view was that, of the total for ibis purpose, one hundred millu'ins should be foreign loans.

A small gathering of Australians attended St. Andrew’s Church on Saturday when it burial service was read over the ashes of Charles Mutkolb tie llav-kcs. which were placed in the church in two urns. TOKIO, October 20 Forty-nine days have now elapsed ,-iin e the oarquakc and the lire, in order to mark the occasion a great inumarial service was .'held in 'the grounds of the Alilitarv Depot in the Honjodi district where nearly 38,000 people, who sought shelter, were burned to death. In the grounds there were neatly 200.(700 iconic, many of them relatives r,|' t In’s * hist in the disaster. Thes-v passed before a shrine, behind which are the lanes and a.slios of the dead. This shrine, and others in th 0 devastated districts, had wonderfully fine displays of chrysanthemums arid dahlias that were sent from various districts. An official ceremony opened the proceedings when the Prefectural Governor. Mayor, officials, and I iseount Gate, on b. halt ' I' Premier A'aumnoto read addresses to the dead.

A REMARKABLE ESCAPE. THURSDAY ISLAND, Oct. 22. Tile steamer Arafura has arrived from Japan with Mrs Ha wk os and her son as passengers, They declined to he interviewed. The mother L greatly distressed at the loss of her husband, especially since they had learned by eaMe w hile on the ship that his remains were found in the Tokio ruins. Airs Hawke was having a bath at the top of the (irand Hotel when the lirsfc shock came to the city. Her husband was on the ground floor. ,Ho was buried in the crumpled building. Mrs Ilawke was deposited in the roadway, still in tho hath, hut was not hurt.