FIRE PROTECTION

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 106, 1 November 1945, Page 5

FIRE PROTECTION

A NATIONAL COUNCIL

FACILITIES REVIEWED

The establishment of a National Fire Council, which should be responsible for the general organisation and control of fire protection in the Dominion was recommended in the report of the Local Government Committee to the House of Representatives. . That council should consist of representatives of fire insurance companies, the Fire Brigades' Association, the Fire Brigadesmen's Union, the Fire Boards' Association, the Municipal Association, and certain Government nominees. The council would also be responsible for the collection and distribution of insurance levies and Government subsidies throughout the Dominion, .and should have-the general responsibility of supervising the efficiency of all fire brigades. As a general principle it was thought that fire protection should be the responsibility of the territorial local authority. That meant that, except in exceptional cases where the fire district extended over the area of more than one territorial local authority, fire boards should be abolished. In order that insurance companies might have representation, it was recommended that every territorial local authority be required to set up a statutory fire committee, and to give it full administrative powers, except in the matter of raising a loan or striking a rate. The insurance companies should have representation on that commitItee. The implementing of that proposal should be .left to the proposed Local Government Commission. REDISTRIBUTION OF COSTS. It was recommended that there be a redistribution of fire protection costs, based on the Government's paying not more than 20 per cent., insurance companies 50 per cent, and the local authorities approximately 30 per cent. The justification for the increase in Government subsidies was the large number of State houses, the increasing amount, of Government, property, and the large amount of produce owned by the State which is not insured in New Zealand, and did not pay anything towards fire protection. Another recommendation was that municipally-operated brigades should be entitled to Government subsidies and insurance contributions where the standard of efficiency as determined by the National Fire Council was adequate, including the existence of a reticulated water supply. The Committee said the present system of appointing Government nominees on fire boards had no justification and that such representation should, be discontinued.