Michael Fowler: Law and order an issue after quake

A civilian sworn in as a special policeman guards the entrance to the 300 block in Heretaunga St East.

In order to ensure lockdown of New Zealand over the designated four weeks for preventative measures due to Covid-19, a military presence in addition to police will likely be seen patrolling the streets of the nation.

While the current pandemic is obviously a completely different set of circumstances to the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake, it may interest readers to read of what was put in place then.

I also get asked if things were better in the "old days" during times of crisis. My reply is that it's similar to today, the vast majority looked out for each other, and complied with the authorities, but there were those that didn't.

The Hawke's Bay police force in 1931, even considering the reduced population then, was smaller than today.

Laws were stricter, especially in the way people were expected to behave, so swearing, expectorating (spitting) and consumption of alcohol had stricter laws.

Over the course of almost 20 years I have interviewed many people who have told me a disturbing amount of domestic violence occurred in families due to excessive alcohol consumption.

Law and order was an issue after the earthquake – and would have been a lot worse in Napier except for the fortunate arrival of the HMS Veronica at Ahuriri on the day of the Hawke's Bay earthquake, February 3, 1931.

Some of the sailors reported Napier, not surprisingly, was in complete chaos when they came in the central business district.

In Hastings, a meeting to organise a response to the earthquake was held at 2pm near the corner of Market St South and Heretaunga St East. It was the only place where a building had not collapsed or was in danger of.

The earthquake had occurred almost 13 years after World War I, and some ex soldiers took command. In particular Colonel Hildebrand Holderness set up a citizen's committee to organise relief.

Around 150 special police guarded and patrolled the streets of Hastings for about a week. Included in this was a squad of motor and cycle police. The men in the special police were volunteers drawn from ordinary civilian life and sworn in to become special police. Hastings High School principal and ex-World War I officer Major W A G Penlington was in charge of them.

Michael Fowler

The special police were issued with pistols and given authority to shoot any non-compliant looters without questions asked. No one was shot.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds (2019: $32 million) in stock remained in the ruins of the Hastings Central Business District. Hastings mayor G F Roach had asked for 60 policemen from the Commissioner of Police to take over from the special police guarding the town.

By February 11, there were 18 members of the police force and non-commissioned officers of the territorial and permanent military forces (such as marines from the HMS Diomede and Dunedin) in Hastings who took over from the special police volunteers.

Havelock North had more problems than Hastings with crime and had to introduce protective measures. A hold up occurred on a Havelock North street, which shocked the residents.

Arch Toop of the Havelock North Fire Brigade was in charge of issuing passes in and out of Havelock. A special police force was also established, with a number belonging to the fire brigade and could be seen in uniform wearing their brass hats. I was told some men had batons with nails in them instead of pistols.

Charles Griffiths, owner of Griffiths Boots, Hastings, rescued what he could find of his store stock from his collapsed shop and set up shop in his residential garage. He had a few people turn up with a left or right shoe (which they had looted from his shop's ruins) and asked if he had the matching shoe.

Cash and cheques were of course 89 years ago the main exchange for goods and services.

Many bank staff bravely put money into their strong rooms during the earthquake and closed them before making a hasty exit.

In order to protect banks from would-be robbers, banks had pistols issued to tellers.

My understanding is defence of the bank's funds would not result in prosecution if a robber was injured or killed.

The Bank of New Zealand, Hastings, was in the same place as is today in Heretaunga St.

Funds of the bank were removed from the safe and taken to a tent at the residence of the bank's accountant, J B L Brown, in St Aubyn St West.

A neighbour of J B L Brown, Bill Hood and his dog, stood guard outside the tent while J B L Brown and the manager slept in the tent with loaded pistols at the ready.

The Great Depression was in process, and without the welfare state of today, many people would not hesitate to take, sometimes out of desperation, what wasn't theirs.

Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is a contract researcher and writer for business and organisational histories.