THE Evening Star. MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1869.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2007, 11 October 1869, Page 2

THE Evening Star. MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1869.

The case of the Corporation versus the Fire Brigade is now before the public —the one in all its niggardliness, the other in its insulted unselfishness. There is something remarkably odd in the whole treatment which the Fire Brigades of the town have met with at the hands of our civic parliament. One would really imagine that Councillors Fish and Dons et hoc genus omne had a special down upon anything that did

not immediately emanate from themselves. Before the'water was laid on in the City, the Fire Brigade was looked to as a guardian force. They did the best volunteer service that has ever been rendered to Dunedin. The damage done to a few outlying stations in the North Island by hordes of murdering Maoris pales before the suffering and loss which Dunedin has sustained on more than one occasion through fires; and this would have been multiplied indefinitely had there been no trained band of men, with proper appliances, to arrest the danger. The City felt grateful for the self-denying and heroic conduct often displayed by the Brigade. Their annual gathering was honored with the presence of the chief men of the place. They were praised deservedly by the press, and their services were gratefully acknowledged by numbers who were saved from ruin through their efforts. We make no comment upon the treatment the Brigade received at the hands of the Corporation with regard to their plant. We are quite ready to concede that, as guardians of the City, the Corporation are the proper custodians of it. They might have done their work in a more courteous manner, but the present Council had nothing to do with it, and it is with their doings only that we have now to deal. This much may be said, however —they might have learnt from the effect of the past what may be the probable consequences of the present course of action. The Brigade, stung by a sense of the scurvy mode of treatment adopted by the Corporation, broke up, and it was with great difficulty that another could be organised. But although Messrs Fish and Dons may think they are doing a mighty stroke by saving some six or seven pounds in endeavoring to throw the balance of expense of a supper upon their guardians against fire, there is not a man of generous feelings in the City that will coincide with them. Had the Fire Brigade asked wages, it would have been a matter of contract, and it would have been quite competent for the City Council to canvass the rate of remuneration to be given. But there was no demand made. An annual festival has been instituted,—the only public recognition of their services by the town through its Coi’poration ", and although in the absence of actual service, there is not a member of the Brigade who does not make personal sacrifices to a far greater amount than the difference between the cost of the supper and the amount awarded, that trifling difference is subjected to a cheese paring process of argument, and actually refused—in charity, we say through mistaken economy on the parts of proposer, seconder, and supporters. Is it nothing that a number of men should deny themselves pleasure and recreation, should subject themselves to drill, prepare themselves for severe exex*tion, institxxte watch and ward, and unnoticed and almost unknown by their fel-low-citizens, hold themselves iix x*eadiness to be called out at any moment to encounter the fiercest and mostrelentless of enemies—fixe 1 Is it nothing that all this should be done voluntarily and without subjecting the City to greater expense than is barely sufficient to prepare them for the work they have undertaken and to distinguish them from their fellow citizens so that unintei’ruptedly they may do it when their services are required ? Is there a man outside the walls of the Civic hall who has the slightest sympathy with the action of the Corporation 1 We have no hesitation in saying—Not one. In fact, there is but one feeling on the subject, and that is, that the Brigade has been badly used, We think it necessary thus to speak out, fox*, as a public organ, we would not have it thought that the terms in which the trifling difference of cost between the amount voted and the expense of the supper was refused, meet with the slightest sympathy or approbation. We have no doubt that the mover and the seconder of this ungenex*ous x*esolution may attempt to excuse themselves on the score of not exceeding an estimate. Perhaps they may conceive it necessary to show their fitness to watch over the public purse, axxd think it a x’ecommendation for the fixture Mayorship that they withstood so gross an attempt at imposition. In this instance this will not be so accepted by the public. The general feeling is that instead of a supper, confined to the members of the Brigade, a more social gathering should be projected even if more expensive—a gathering at which wives, daughters, and sisters may be present, that they may thus signify their gratitude for the self-denying watchfulness of the Fire Brigade. It is a matter for thankfulness that there has been so little need latterly for their efforts, but the town is not free from risk. A wise economy cannot be too highly commended in civic affairs. Even in contributions to voluntary associations there might be a lavish profuseness that would have justified the course taken. We do not think the present instance called fox* it, and wo trust that the Corporation will

make all haste to undo the damage they have done, and that the Brigade will not too hastily take offence at conduct which the people of Dunedin must to a man condemn.