THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, MAY 1, 1880.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1930, 1 May 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, MAY 1, 1880.

The views held by Councillor Ayers with regard to the Fire Brigade question are of such a nature as to puzzle the most anxious enquirer. As it is generally understood that he intends to become a candidate for the Mayoral chair during the present year, the burgesses at large are eager to know what may happen to be his ideas on topics of general interest, so that, when ho proclaims from his seat at the Council table that he looks upon fire brigades as a luxury, each individual hair of each individual ratepayer stands np in horror on its particular root. It was last Monday evening when this now historic saying was given utterance to by Councillor Ayers. The delay at the fire the previous day was the subject of remark, and Councillor Taylor had stated that Mr. Superintendent Harris had informed him that it would cost £2OOO to replenish the plant. Hereupon, Councillor Ayers is reported as suggesting that the matter bo referred to the fire insurance companies, since keeping a Fire Brigade was a luxury. We are not informed what the effect of this remark was on that usually stolid body, the City Council. The Mayor probably showed no emotion. During his two terms of office he has seen so much “ life ” of various descriptions that his feelings by this time are, in all probability, somewhat blunted. But newer councillors —those who have not gone through the fire as has his Worship—must have exhibited considerable selfcontrol if they held complete mastery over their features on the utterance of this sentiment. Supposing at a meeting of the Board of Health a member was to suggest that pure oxygen was not a necessity in these days for the proper preservation of life; or supposing at a meeting of the Hospital and Oharitab’# Aid Board, a member was casually to remark that the Hospital patients might very well live on tainted meat and damaged stores; ineitherof thesecasesthoremaining members on these two Boards might well feel a sort of doubt as to the sanity of the gentleman who had ventilated such an extraordinary opinion. But, after all, would an opinion of such a nature be more peculiar than one holding a Fire Brigade to be a luxury and not a necessity in a town mostly built of wood, and containing property of enormous value. What, in good truth, can he Councillor Ayers’ views on this subject ? “Luxury ” has been defined as “ extravagant indulgence,” and there has always been considered a merit in abstaining from such. From the earliest ages the individual who who has voluntarily refrained from the use of luxuries has been considered to be a man of peculiar merit. Consequently, wo presume that Councillors Ayers thinks that for the City to abstain from the use of a Fire Brigade would entitle it to the admiration of all men. Such a view has probably been adopted after a severe course of study on works treating of Eastern travel. The attitude of a population in those parts, on the outbreak of a conflagration, has been described by various writers with great graphic force. It is much as follows. A fire breaks out, and the individuals equivalent to the English ratepayers flock to the scene in time to see the residents in the particular block escaping with hare life out of the premises. The ratepayers thereupon seat themselves in a circle round the blazing pile, at a distance at which they can he comfortably warmed without danger. Presently the gentleman equivalent to the mayor arrives, and he has a specially favorable seat apportioned to him. The scene is then viewed by all present with the utmost satisfaction. Even those whose lives have just been in hazard, and whose property is still blazing, soon seat themselves among the group, and, with the greatest sangfroid, join in the generally expressed opinion that Allah is great, and that Mahomet is his prophet. As for attempting to put out the fire, that, of course, is out of the question. The misfortune is a dispensation of Providence, and it would certainly be useless, and possibly sacrilegious, to struggle against destiny. When the fire has burnt itself out the Mayor and ratepayers retire, with a pious consciousness that they have just assisted at a display highly calculated to deepen the religious conviction of all present that the divine decrees arc irresistible. What we have just attempted to describe is the usual programme carried out at a firo in an eastern town, and apparently Councillor Ayers wishes to introduce the same system into our own municipality. Councillor Ayers’ proposal is novel to ns hut has the sanction of ages. Abolish the Pi e Brigade, he apparently suggests, and rely on Providence. It is both more economical and more religious. It saves the wear and tear of fire-brigade plant. Individuals may occasionally suffer through the system, hut they will -have the happy consciousness of having served as burning and shining examples of the justice of the universal cosmogony. But, a reader may object, perhaps Councillor Ayers merely used the words attributed to him in a sarcastic sense, and had the intention of conveying a meaning exactly opposite to that to bo obtained by a strict rendering. We trust this is not the case. The Council Board is hardly the place were such pranks should be played. A certain amount of buffoonery is allowable, say, in private theatricals, or when singing a comic song before a select audience. But the matter of fires in the city is a serious one, and the City Council is composed of grave and reverend seigneurs who are hardly equal to grasping a sarcasm or a connundrum in its full force at a moment’s notice. Councillor Ayers’ spirits may ho very volatile, hut he should suppress them on certain occasions, and he prepared to treat a serious subject in a serious fashion. Ho may mean, or ho may not mean, that Fire Brigades are a luxury. We heartily wish that he would explain himself, for the suspense is fatal to the peace of mind of the ratepayers.