THE FIRE BRIGADE COMPETITION. Return of the Auckland and Thames Competitors. Auckland, February 3.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 88, 7 February 1885, Page 3

THE FIRE BRIGADE COMPETITION. Return of the Auckland and Thames Competitors. Auckland, February 3.

The teams from the Auckland and Thames Fire Brigades that proceeded to Dunedin to take part in the great competition of the New Zealand Fire Brigades held there were passengers by the s.s. Hawea, which arrived at the Manukau at 11 a.m. to-day. Foreman Hanley was waiting for the men with a brake, and they were driven to town. On their arrival at the central station, Albert-street, they were received with cheers by a number of members of the Auckland Brigade, and entertained at a luncheon. A dinner will take place to-night at which Superintendent Hughes and Price, and doubtless several members of the teams will make statements regarding fiasco which led to their so abruptly leaving Dunedin. Shortly after the arrival of the men Mr Hughes was seen by a Star reporter who sought to elicit from him a full statement of the affair. Mr Hughes, however, stated that it was his intention to make a full statement at the dinner to-night, and he would prefer not to go into details. From the conversation that our reporter had with Mr Hughes and several members of the Thames team it appears that their action was fully justified. The water used at the competition was drawn from a man supplying the Dunedin Gas Works, and a member of one of the Dun edin Brigades was found interfering with one of the valves, so as to secure an unfair advantage for their team. The great grievince of the Auckland men appear, however, to have arisen out of one of the engine competitions. The Spit had scoured the first prize and Napier the second, while Auckland was third, A protest was lodged against Auckland in consequence of the way they had made up their hose. On the following day, much to the disgust of our men, they found that though the protest was dismissed, they were disqualified because theircouplings were not spanner tight. Now as Mr Hughes had stood close to the judges during the competition, and had noticed that they did not test the coup* lings with the spanner at all, he was naturally very wroth at the judges disqualifying the team on this ground. The judges were all local men, and gross favouritism is said to have been shown. The Auckland men declined- to attend the dinner because they helieved it wa.B given by the Demonstration Committee ; had they known that the citizens of Dunedin were the hosts, they iwQitldb^Ye. qttended.,