FIRE BRIGADES' BILL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8865, 28 October 1907, Page 7

FIRE BRIGADES' BILL.

AMENDMENTS. The Fire Brigades' Bill has been amended by the Joint Statutes Revision Committee in several important particulars so as to bring it into line with statements made by the Hon. Dr Findlay, Attorney-General, in reply to a deputation a few days ago. It will be remembered that Dr Findlay expressed his willingness to make the bill permissive, in the chief cities, m well as in other places, power of choice in the hands of the city councils. It is now proposed to effect this by altering the wording of clause 7, which, as it originally stood, provided that the Governor may by Order-in-Coun-cij, on tha applicati dii of a Fire Board and of the contributory local authority, declare that the fire district of that board shall cease to be a lire district. The clause, as amended by the committee, dispenses with the necessity of the Fire Board joining'in the application, and provides that the Governor "shall," on such application, declare that the fire district shall cease to be a fire district", on the date of thQ Ovder-in-Counci 1. Anew sub-clause is as follows "In any such case the contributory local authority shall repay to the insurance companies carrying on business in the fire district at the date of the dissolution of the board, such amount as the Governor determines to be just and equitable, having re gard to the value of the property as becoming vested in the local authority, and to the contribJtions made by such companies towards the cost of the requisition thereof by the board. Every sum so repayable by the local authority to any insurance company shall constitute a debt recoverable by that company from the local authority in any court of competent jurisdiction." The pawer to mortgage property as security for loans is taken away from the beards, but it is proposed that limitation on borrowing shall be the amount of the whole of the estimated annual expenditure approved by the Minister in place of one half of the tame.^ In regard t> the taking over of the Fire Board of fire prevention property from the local authority, the bill is altered to read as follows: — "The Fire Board shall pay to the local authority which owned the said property the capital value thereof as so determined, together with interest thereon, by .twenty-six annual instalto 5 per centum of the ■■■■Jlital value. Every such inHHBpfnent shall be deemed to include principal and interest, and shall be paid at such time or times as the board and the local authority agree upon, and in default of any such agreement, then at the end of each financial year of the board." A new sub-section makes the con sent of the local authority from which land or buildings are acquired necessary io the mortgaging or disposal of such property, until all moneys payable by the board to the local authority in respect of the property have been paid. "The Minister or the local authority in consenting to such sale, lease, mortgage, charge, or other disposition, may impose conditions as to the manner in which any moneys so obtained by the Board shall be expended for fire prevention purposes, and the Board shall expend the same accordingly."