The Nelson Evening Mail. WEENESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1875.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 265, 6 October 1875, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. WEENESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1875.

Most persons like to know what other people think of them, and the estimation they are held in by their friends and neighbors. But the gratification of this curiosity is not always pleasant. The citizens of Dnnedin must have read with astonishment the picture of themselves drawn by one of their local journals a few mornings ago. Eor reasons we are not acquainted with, Dunedin was threatened with the loss of its Fire Brigade, on which the Daily Times remarked : — • We cau only siy thet it ia by no memg unlikely that ft c will break out on the first uight we have no Brigade. Thnse who j understand these things only lau^h in your ! lace if you speak of Qre > 8 residing from chance. The difficulty of detecting an incen inry is enorm us, but it would be affecting a virtue we do not poss >.t s if we did not Vinvt that, in nine esses out of ten, fire is the result of intention, and not of carelessness It may be taken for granted thai there are met now waiting the opportunity of clearing out their itock, and they will do it the first night there it no Brigade, because ~ they know thst the chances of detection are much diminished by an all-consuming fire." Can this be the deliberate opinion of the writer? I would not heap your enemy fay so : Nor shall jou do mine ear that violence, To make It trustee of your own report against yourself . Well may the Guardian remark : — " According to this, all those who have unfortunately, during the last few years, suffered by fire in Dunedin shjmld be placed on a black list, and only one tenth of them regarded as honest men ; and as many of these are representatives of the most respectable class of the mercantile community, and no one can tell which is the one honest man in each ten, the whole place must virtually be looked upon by insurance companies as utterly unsafe." It is only charitable to suppose that the writer did not mean what he wrote, since, if such a statement had but the color of truth, no Insurance Company twould be found to accept risks in such \community of scoundrels.