Transport of Essentials.

Headquarters at Wellington were by this time receiving more detailed information as to what had happened in the devastated area, and the Defence Department had made a requisition on the Railway for special trains for transporting material and hospital equipment from Trentham. Foodstuffs were also assembled and were in readiness for dispatch. The first of these trains left Trentham at 7.31 p.m. on the Tuesday, and arrived at Waipukurau, the nearest point that could be reached in the then state of the permanent way, at 1.44 a.m. on Wednesday, 4th February.

Lorries were requisitioned to take hospital stores and equipment from Waipukurau, and within an hour of the arrival of the train 41 loaded lorries had been dispatched. Consideration was then turned to the question of providing food, and, if necessary, water, and also of arranging for transportation of refugees and casualty cases from Napier and Hastings.

The Railway Refreshment Branch had assembled large supplies of food, and arrangements were made for cooks and assistants to proceed northward at once. These food supplies and the Refreshment staff in charge left Wellington by special train at 7.30 p.m. and picked up additional supplies en route.

In Napier and Hastings events were happening with such startling rapidity and earthquakes were so frequent that the population as a whole, although accepting conditions with that bravery characteristic of our race, were more or less stunned by the calamity that had come upon them.