STONES AND GLASS HOUSES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2813, 12 February 1908, Page 34

STONES AND GLASS HOUSES.

The appliances and water supnlv in Dunedin have been, and are, far short of possible requirements, and in order to ascertain exactly how Dunedin is equinned to meet a similar emergency to the Christchurch fire, Mr F. G .Cray, chairman of the Dunedin Fire Board was interviewed by a representative of the Times.

The Chairman of the Fire Board said that he and his colleagues fully recognised that in the joint interests of the ratepayers and the insurance companies it was a.hsolutelv essential that every possible provision should be made to prevent in Dunedin a repetition of the catastrophe in Christchurch. If the suggestions of the members of the Fire Board — a more or less expert body of men with special functions to perform in the prevention of fire — were not acted upon, Dunedin, or parts of it, would be more or less at the mercy of any conflagration that at any time might overtake it.

The looses in Christchurch in that one night were, according to Mr Cray, larger than any in the whole of New Zealand for the past year. Such losses increased annually by leaps and bounds, till in 1906 they amounted to no less than £400,000. Exact losses for 1907 were, of course, not yet available, but they_ were monstrous <it anyrate ; and now 1908 had opened in this way.

From observations made in various parts of the city, it is apparent that the warning written by Christchurch in letters of fire has not been lost on Doinedin.