FIRE LOSSES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1248, 4 October 1911, Page 4

FIRE LOSSES.

NEW ZEALAND'S BAD RECORD. Inspector Hugo, in his annual report under tho Fire Brigades Act, returns again to tho subject oi the great amount of loss by firo in New Zealand.' "Tho "United States of America has boen looked upon for very many years past as having the heaviest lire loss of any country iu tho world. According to the New York "Evening Post," February 4, 1911, tho record firo loss in Europe is held by Russia, with an average of 1.1Gd01., 6ay 4s. Bd., per capita; the average throughout Europe as a whole is 48 cents, say 25., per head of population. The insurance loss in tho United States for tho year ending Decomhe.r 31. 1910, is returned as amounting to 146,326,406 dollars, at an exchange rate of 4.50 dollars, this is equivalent to «£20,8G2,532. Arriving at tho firo waste by tho same process I havo adopted for New Zealand—i.e., the addition of 33J P«r cent.—gives the sum of .£35,816,700, with a population approximating eighty millions; this is something nndnr 10s. per capita. With tlio fire waste of tho Dominion for the same year amounting to .£523,560, and tho population approximating one million, gives an average of over 10s. per capita; so that on tho foregoing lino of deduction tho very unenviablo record of having the largest lire loss in tho world is held by New Zealand, and this notwithstanding the very substantial decrease of .£101,147 in the liro waste when compared with that of tho year ending Decern bor 31, 1009. Although the question of this excessive lofs •has been prominently beforo tlio public several times during tlio last two or three years, very little of any importance has been done towards remedying the evil. Some few boroughs havo amended their by-laws in tho direction of extending the brick-areas in the town-oentrcs, and lin some measure improving their building regulations from a fire-protection point of view, but none havo gono far enough, and thero has beoii no general movement in this respect. One of tho resolutions passed at the United Firo Brigades Conference was that the Government should bo asked to frame a set of model building regulations, and pTovido for their compulsory adoption by local governing bodies. ."An_ inferonco to be drawn from nn analysis of the firo reports sent in from the various districts is that over or excessive insurance is still much in evidence, and tho portion of an advertisement following, taken from a local paper recently, appears to 1m on tho faro of it a case in point: 'Boardinshoiisn (the furniture is insurod for' : "Pfico for the lea.se and tho wholo of the furniture and effects, including upright grand piano, .£220.'" Tho inspector also repeats his previous warnings against the use of wax matches.