MONEY OF NO VALUE

Hokitika Guardian, 25 June 1929, Page 6

MONEY OF NO VALUE

EMERGENCY COMMITTEE RULES. THE COMMUNITY'S MEALS. MURCHISON, June 22. A community unique in the Dominion is to be found at Murchison today. Here are about fifty men and five women living a communal life, with an earthquake every hour or so, and deep rumblings and roarings going on in the hills night and day. They are busy endeavouring to get the stricken township hack to normal, and to make residents and visitors'.alike feel that, despite the evil times which have befallen the citizens, there is hope for the (future. Murchison is the one town in the Dominion to-day in which money is of no value. There is nothing that can be bought, no one is allowed to go without the necessities of life. An Emergency Committee rules the town, and its unwritten laws are as effective as the most stringent code. The only rules are those concerning the food supply, and they are most strictly observed.

Everyone lives in the open or in sheds and verandahs. Some are living in a score of tents which have been ercted, hut these will not be fully occupied until a group of thirty-seven refugees arrive here lroni Mkl-Maniia. These people are camped in the bush to-night, the woman and children being housed in a rough bush hut, while the menfolk are spending the night in the open in pouring rain. The head of the committee which controls the town is Mr Alec Thom, in ordinary Me a secondary school master, hut now a most efficient dictator. All irrivals have to report to him, and he makes them welcome, seeing to their personal comfort as if he were manager of a leading hotel. On a blackboard in the school grounds, where the relief camp stands, and where open-air cooking is carried on, are the rules set out as follows: —

RULES FOR THE COOKHOUSE. Q) Get plate from table and go to counter. (2) After service, pass through marquee. (3) After dining, please return dishes to table for washing. (4) DON’T LINGER OVER, ME A LS. FOR DINNER YOU NEED—(I) A soup plate and spoon. Then come back and get—(2) A meat plate and knife and fork; (3) Sweet plate.

All eat their meals standing up in a marquee, trestle tables being provided.

One of the heroes of the camp is Mr Dave Mann, formerly cook at the Masonic Hotel. He is in sole charge of the cooking arrangements, and since the hig ’quake has prepared and served nearly 2000 meals in the open-air. Ho has an able and willing helper in •Johnny Lawrence, a youth who sees that everyone gets a good meal and issues the food with scrupulous fairness. No one is allowed to go short and no one is allowed to waste anything. The five woman who have refused to leave the township are Mrs M’Wha, an eicTcrly lady, Miss Bathe and Mesdanies Gibson (three). Mis M’Wha is camp mother, and she acts as help and adviser to all.