“GLOVES OFF”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 380, 14 June 1928, Page 16

“GLOVES OFF”

ONEHUNGA FIRE BOARD ASSAILED ALL CHARGES REFUTED “The manner in which you have dealt with my letter demands that I must take the gloves off,” wrote Councillor F. S. Morton to the Onehunga Fire Board, which dealt with Councillor Morton’s charges at its meeting last evening. rj*HE letter conitnued: “I am fully aware of a conspiracy that is in process of formation and which I intend to expose when opportunity arises.” He accused the fire brigade of failing to extinguish a fire in Amaru Road on Christmas Day. That the fire tender on numerous occasions left the station with only one man on it. That he had seen firemen; miss the tender at the fire station and return without ever seeing where the fire was. He refused to divulge the source of his information, but alleged that two junior members of the brigade on one occasion were playing water on to a fire from the middle of the road, when a senior fireman came on the scene, took charge of the hose and went in and fought the flames. He suggested that the chairman of the Fire Board should meet him in a public debate before an audience of Onehunga ratepayers and discuss the finances of the board, particularly the letting of the contract of the building of the fire station to a firm of contractors outside the borough, whose tender was higher than that of a local contractor. SLUR CAST ON BOARD The chairman of the board, Mr. W. C. Kemble, said that Mr. Morton had cast a slur on the board and also on the Mayor, Mr. W. C. Coldicutt, by insinuating that the latter had taken part in the board’s deliberations at the previous meeting. He said that the Mayor had attended that meeting. mere ! y as one of the public, and had not joined in the board’s deliberations.

Mr. Morton had failed to substantiate any one of the charges he had made against the board or the brigade. The fire at which Mr. Morton alleged two boys were handling the hose was actually attended by 16 members of the brigade. The tender left the station with the assistant-superintendent and three young firemen at 1.35 a.m on the morning in question, and he produced evidence to show that water was playing on the flames five minutes after the alarm had been given. AUTHORITIES SATISFIED He had not the slightest intention of meeting Mr. Morton in debate, as the working of the board and the brigade was under the supervision of the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Audi-tor-General and the Inspector of Fire Brigades, and these authorities were perfectly satisfied with the board’s efficiency. Mr. Morton had been given every opportunity to prove his charges and he had failed to do so.