Editorial: Canterbury's pain is our pain

OPINION: In the days after the big earthquake that struck Christchurch last weekend, Kiwibank placed a newspaper advertisement that read: "Since Saturday 4th, 4.35am, New Zealand has become One Island." The bank's copy-writers certainly tapped into the mood that seems to have enveloped the country.

Other lending institutions have made million-dollar contributions to Christchurch City Council's mayoral fund, and have told the prime minister they will be helpful to affected businesses. Local bodies elsewhere have offered use of their experts to assess building safety, police and fire service staff have been sent from elsewhere to relieve exhausted colleagues, and soldiers are helping to patrol the CBD and test water to ensure it is safe to drink.

Students have joined forces to clear suburban streets; Federated Farmers and Fonterra are helping farmers dealing with unsettled stock, and coping with toppled grain silos.

Wherever the quake and its never-ending aftershocks have done their worst, stories of kindness and resolve abound. Take the Indian dairy owner, who, seeing the shock in his customers' eyes, gave them whatever supplies they needed after the 7.1 quake struck. Work and Income staff are steadily phoning, or visiting, thousands of single beneficiaries to check on their welfare. The Red Cross and Salvation Army – stalwarts among stalwarts – are throwing their considerable resources at the dazed denizens of the Canterbury plains. And appeal funds grow daily as the extent of the devastation the gods have visited on the South Island becomes clearer.

Wellingtonians – those most afraid of the Big One – feel especially grateful as well as guilty that the mess nature has wreaked did not happen to them.

So far, the Government's response has been quick, practical and flexible. Prime Minister John Key, accompanied by ministers and, later, other political leaders, was quickly into the city to see for himself what Cantabrians face and what taxpayers must do to help. He was right to cancel a scheduled trip to Britain and France next week, although in reality he can do little more than be a reassuring presence.

The travail Canterbury is suffering is a grim reminder to other New Zealanders of Civil Defence's unwavering message – in a disaster, we must expect to fend for ourselves for at least three days and so must be well prepared. Supermarkets here are seeing bottled water, buckets and other disaster-related kit disappear from their shelves.

But in the immediate future, those not bearing the brunt of nature's long-withheld secret – the fault causing these quakes has lain dormant for 16,000 years – need to accept that government focus has to be on the Canterbury region for months, possibly years, to come. Taxpayers will bear the bulk of the infrastructure repair costs. That is as it should be, even if it means plans made for elsewhere in the country must go on the backburner for a while.

If that is the case, so be it. To paraphrase Kiwibank, we are all Cantabrians now.

- © Fairfax NZ News