The Mayor Appealed to for Help for Tauranga.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 156, 12 June 1886, Page 1

The Mayor Appealed to for Help for Tauranga.

The terror felt at Tauranga must have been intense, as before ten o'clock His Worship the Mayor, Mr W". It. Waddel, received the following telegram :—: — "Tauranga, 8.50 this morning. " To the Mayor, Auckland. " Will you send steamer to Tauranga if I wire you, or if telegraphic communication stopped 1 Keply. "B. E. Jordan, Mayor." Mr Waddell sent the following reply :— "To the Mayor, Tauranga. " Will assist to the best of my ability on receipt of instructions. Several steamers can be had at a few hours' notice. "W. R Waddel." Another telegram in reply was received from Mr Jordan urging the Mayor to send the steamers. The Mayor, with praiseworthy alacrity, at once proceeded to the office of the Northern Steamship Company, and found that the managing director, Captain McGregor, had already received an intimation of the disaster, but there did not appear to be a great inclination on the part of Captain McGregor to despatch a steamer — probably due to the fact that he' did not appreciate the magnitude of the calamity. The Mayor at once asked Captain McGregor and Mr D. B. Cruickshank, Chairman of Directors, to despatch a steamer, and on receiving a reply that it must be a " business transaction," and that the cost would be Mr Waddell at once guaranteed the amount. He then promptly received an assurance from Captain McGregor that the s.s. Wellington would be ready to" sail for Tauranga in three hours, as her boiler was full of water, and no time would be lost in collecting a crew.