HUGE FIRE LOSS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 623, 27 March 1929, Page 6

HUGE FIRE LOSS

OVER £1,500,000 IN YEAR INSPECTOR URGES REDUCTION Press Association MASTERTON, Tuesday. Reference to the great fire loss in New Zealand was made this evening by Mr. T. T. Hugo, inspector of fire brigades, at the annual reunion of the Masterton Fire Brigade. For the year ended last December, said Mr. Hugo, the loss would be well over £1,500,000. He asked what was being done to reduce it. Three years ago, he said, he considered it necessary to make incisive criticism of the United Fire Brigades’ Association, in consequence of its manner of carrying out demonstrations. To-day he was only too pleased to testify to the very great improvement made since then in that respect. The association and brigades were doing their part. Mr. Hugo proceeded to urge the necessity of business people, who were more closely affected by the huge fire losses than any other part of the community, to get together with a view to reducing that loss. He added that the United Fire Brigades’ Association was taking a very forward step in the matter, which he hoped would bear fruit.