THE FIRE BRIGADE.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1129, 24 December 1883, Page 2

THE FIRE BRIGADE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I find many are wondering why what you are pleased to call “ our tolerably efficient fire brigade” has become defunct. Your epitaph, “ Died for want of funds,” is very wide of the mark. Want of funds could not be the cause, although they may palm that on the public as the ostensible cause. Yonr statement that they were “ starved to death,” is simply nonsense. The Borough Council voted them £25 with future expectations, which was a very fair amount considering their income, but I am aware that some of the Brigade thought otherwise, and imagined the Council a kind of El Dorado, with powers to vote fabulous sums for any object if so inclined. I am not aware that the general public were canvassed for subscriptions to the Brigade fund, these two years past. If lam correct, I do not think that you are justified in palming the defunct Brigade as martyrs to “ apathy and neglect.” My experience of the Patea people is that they very willingly contribute to the full extent of their means towards any deserving object. A Fire Brigade in a place like Patea is formed for mutual protection, and members cannot expect personal remuneration. The cost of running one ought to be very little, and I think that the £25 granted to them by the Borough Council together with a small contribution from the public, would have been ample for all requirements of the Brigade during the year,

Everyone admits that the Brigade’s action in resigning their trust in the manner they did was very discreditable. They ought to have held office until they had acquainted the Borongh Council with their intentions, and if the Connell neglected to make other arrangement they could have resigned with some credit. Instead of that they have been acting like a lot of schoolboys—hngging an imaginary grievance, ending in the sulks, forgetting their dnty as fellow citizens. Ido not blame them for resigning (only blame the manner of doing it) for I think it was the only thing for them to do under the circumstances, for no one I think would wish the town to be at the mercy of a fire brigade with a grievance. Now that there is a probability of the defunct, brigade being resurrected in another form, I should like to suggest some alteration in its constitution, I have always found at all fires the absence of any well organised system of saving and protecting property. I should suggest that the business people form themselves into a fire brigade and salvage corps. In a town like Palca, when the supply of water is very limited, a fire brigade can do but little good, bnl a well organised salvage corps can. do n vast deal of good in saving and preventing wilful destruction of property, that al trays happens nt fires in places whore iherc is no organisation of tin’s sort. There is one thing certain, that a town so unprotected from fire as we are should not be without an organisation of some sort. Although in the past wo have been comparatively free from ' any great fires, we do not know what moment a big fire may occnr and rnin the major portion of ns, and we will well deserve our fate if wc allow the spleeny suggestion of the late brigade to forward the engine to Wanganui to be an accomplished fact. —Yonrs, &c., Qlan Aber. Patea, Dec 24, 1883.