ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1108, 6 November 1879, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

THE LATE FIRE. TO THE EDITOR OF THE OAMARU MAIL. Sir, —Unlike Silas Wegg, I am not a " literary character," so must apply to you to enlighten me on matters that are beyond my limited intellectual capacity. Mr. Kit© has a paint shop-—a mere wooden shell—which, you inform us in your issue of to-day, he insures for L 250. In course of time he sublets this property to Mr. Keenan, who adds a few wooden partitions and further insures for L2OO, besides taking LIOO 011 his furniture. Are the insurance companies satisfied with the value they have obtained for their money 1 A good lively bomb-shell bursting in our midst would be far preferable to Mr. Keenan and his establishment settling in our neighborhood. Nothing can be done but for all parties residiug in his vicinity to increase their in&urances and prepare for the worst. In this case the worst has not been long in coming, for a more disastrous, fire than the present one might have been but for the welldirected a,nd able exertions of our new Fire Brigade and the fortunate direction of the wind, has never occurred in Oamaru. When the assembled wisdom and intelligence of Oamaru, of which the Town Council is supposed to consist, habitually grant licenses under the Boarding-house Act to persons (character no object) inhabiting ramshackle wooden barns, knowing full well for what purposes these dens are used, what can be expected but destruction of property and, sooner or later, great loss of life at the hands of mail's merciless and devouring enemy—fire.—l am, &c., Nunquam Dcutyuo. November sth, 1879.