The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, December 3, 1910. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 926, 3 December 1910, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, December 3, 1910. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Wk have previously suggested to local flaxmillers the desirability of insuring their mills against fire by purchasing either a manual or steam fire engine and hose. During recent outbreaks serious losses to millers could have been avoided had such an engine been on hand. A bucket brigade is next to useless to quench a fire among such highly inflammable material as hemp. The men, as was evidenced at yesterday’s outbreak, worked strenuously with the buckets, but with an engine, pouring a continuous stream of water on the flames, only a traction of the voluntary labour so readily given, would be required. A manual engine would be the most suitable machine for the work, because it could be playing the water on the burning structure before the other class of engine had steam up. The river provides an abundance of water alongside the mills. It would pay townspeople to cooperate with the millers in this connection, and it only requires some citizen with sufficient initiative to come forward and take the matter in hand. As we have said previously we will wait till half the town is destroyed before we realise the value of a fire brigade.

In conversation with a Councillor the other day, we were informed that a suggestion is to be made that if the Council approve of a loan for a municipal hall the cost of construction should not exceed ,£ISOO. We hope the Council will not make the mistake of underestimating this work, for we have it on the very best authority that a suitable building to meet present requirements can not be erected for less than ,£2OOO, and a properly equipped structure will run into upwards of ,£3,000. Better to leave the thing alone than make a “cheap and nasty” hash of it.