The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1884 Fire

Feilding Star, Volume V, Issue 19, 16 February 1884, Page 2

The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1884 Fire

• i The number of fires that are reported in the Colony just now is very alarming. Day by day we receive accounts of disastrous conflagrations invariably accompanied by a long list of the insurances effected in the various offices. These companies are compelled to protect themselves by charging enormous premiums, and they do so with a unanimity that presses very hard on insurers. Unless they did this we do not believe any one of them could stand the enormous strains upon their resources from losses by fire and the great expense each company is put to by competition. It is a singular fact that when trade is dull, fires are brisk. It almost suggests itself that the dullness of trade is attempted to be compensated for by fire-raising. In nearly every case we are gravely informed " that incendiarism is suspected," but there the matter generally ends. There may, or may not, be an inquest held. The caprice of one or other of the insurance agents is generally the ruling factor. An innocent man is often made a victim by being subjected to the trying ordeal of a coronal inquiry (instituted by ignorance and conducted by prejudice) with the result that a verdict, often out of all accord with the evidence is returned, which leaves the insurance offices and the public even farther from the truth than before the inquiry. There ought to be no exceptions whatever in the matter of inquests on fires. In every case the most rigid examination should be made into all the circumstances surrounding a conflagration, whether the property destroyed be insui'ed or otherwise. We believe that should such a rule be established the number of fires would be considerably diminished, and the amount of property saved to the Colony as a whole would be immense. Unthinking people seem to believe that because a certain sum is paid by the insurance companies, no loss, unless beyond the sum insured, is made. They forget altogether that the property destroyed is lost absolutely, and can never be replaced ; therefore, as a natural consequence, every person is indirectly a sufferer to some extent. In our own immediate neighborhood we are fortunate in being without the principal cause which leads to houseburning. Although trade is quiet, yet it is sound, and the general conduct of business is based on sound principles. The sources of supply are steady and never-failing, with promise of a liberal increase following the daily advent of new settlers. But while we have no fear of incendiarism with a view to rob the insurance companies, yet we consider we are liable to accident as much as any other body of settlers. As we have said over and over again we are utterly helpless as regards stopping a fire, or the salvage of pn - perty. We have no fire brigade or organisation of any kind in this connection, and no person of standing and position appears to take the slightest interest in the subject. We each seem to think that if a fire did occur, it would be in some otlur house, and that our property is perfectly secure from danger. This is a Fools' Paradise, the awakening from which is always surprisingly rude.