The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11,1895.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 139, 11 December 1895, Page 2

The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1895.

THE FIREBELL TOWER.

The officers and members of the Feildmg Fire Brigade are ot opinion that the Borough Council has Dot treated them with that courtesy and consideration they claim they have a right to expect in the matter of the proposed removal of the bell-tower from its present site to another near the Court-house. We do not pretend to say that the tower is an ornament to the Square, because it certainly is not, bnt we do think that an opinion on the subject of change of site, expressed by the Brigade, is entitled to lome respect. It is bat a little thing, perhaps; in the eyea of Councillors, but it is of importance to the members of the Brigade who, while they give their ser^ 1 vices gratuitously to their fellow, rate-, payers, Have a right to expect better treatment at tho hands of onr City Fathers. In a letter which appears today in onr correspondence column, Jtfr Peter Thomson, the captain of the local Firevßri&ade, writer fully and ion<Aa^Vie\jj^ & ibtf the subject. '•'•; JHe also makes -japjOiffißr,' ■ ■^wKehßifi^prooifc ; V)f yi^e:^iii^'aesu^M. ■ the Brigade to Bftccific© Uwu p^rwoal

comfort for the benefit of the public, to have three men Bleeping at the Brigade station every night so as to be prepared to meet any emergency, also to connect Manchester Square with such station by an electric bell, co that the night-watch- | wan could, in ease of need, give an alarm, j Men who are so much in earnest as this , deserve to have the best possible treatment, and we say advisedly that the ! Council are guilty of a huge blunder in risking the loss of the services of such. It is plainly stated that unless they have (heir wants acceded to they will resign in a body, and should that contingency be forced upon them, the Council will have great difficulty in finding others to take their place. The members of the Brigade are picked men who in the past have on all occasions proved, when their services were required, how well qualified they were for the performance of the arduons duties they had undertaken. We would urge, then, on the Mayor and the Borough Councillors to seriously consider the position, to reconsider any decision they have arrived at, and to give a courteous reply Co the petition alluded to in Mr Thomson's letter. There is abundance of time to call a special meeting of the Council, when that and the question of the lighting of the town could be discussed.