CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9611, 4 October 1909, Page 5

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor :

Sir,--The Masterton Fire Board is, I understand, to be the subject of an address ti-night, at the Town Hall. Now, Sir, it is about time the Board did something to justify its existence. It has certainly created soft jobs, useless ones at that, and run its upkeep into about £3,000. The Board tells us not to be alarmed at its uselessness. as, the insurance offices are going to pay half the cost. Are they? The companies are nearly all foreign ones, and they are here to make the people serve them, instead of serving the people. The cost of the Board will, as far as the companies are concerned, be met by the increased rates on the shops and dwellings, and that means higher rents and added prices to the necessaries, etc., sold over the counter. As the workers buy most of their necessaries in small bulk, the coat of the useless Board will eventually be paid by them. We are told, further, that the Brigade's wants were not supplied m the | past, but the Board will see to that now. That, Sir, is "wellie ni\" j How can the wants of the Brigade be settled by creating another want,, and a stupid one at that. The chief want of the Brigade is money, and they can't get that, as the cost of the Board will take the greater portion. I trust, Sir, that the meeting to-night will be the means of letting daylight into the question of Fire Boards and their little ways,—l am, etc., WORKER.