THE WANGANUI CHRONICLE AND RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. “Véritè sans peur.” Wanganui, June 13, 1861.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 5, Issue 239, 13 June 1861, Page 2

THE WANGANUI CHRONICLE AND RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. “ Véritè sans peur.” Wanganui, June 13, 1861.

It is just sixteen months since we urged the formation of a Fire Brigade in this town. The: following are a few of the sentences in which; the necessity for having ‘such an organised force was stated. “Any one who has been present at a fire must be aware of the vast importance of immediate, united, and wellplanned action. But this can never be obtained from a erowd brought together from all quarters by the, cry of fire. They are ignorant of what should be done, irresolute, and in-1 effective; With the best intentions, they often j promote rather than, impede the progress ofi the flames. Bullet a cool and experienced i head be there, and a trained body of men ;j immediately order, discipline, and combined! and energetic : aetion, take the place of con-! fused and disjointed efforts. All the availablepart of the crowd are employed where they are most needed, and in a . minute each one has fallen into his proper place, and is doing his own work. If such a brigade were formed here, it is more than probable that the lusur-j ance companies would.provide an engine, andj possibly the necessary accoutrements. Might we suggest, tliat a public meeting of the im habitants should be held on an early evening to take this matter into consideration ?’ Had this suggestion been acted on, it is not too much to affirm that a large part of the property destroyed, the other day would have keen saved. : The engine .and firemen .would have been on the spot at latest before the.entrance of the fire into Messrs. Taylor, Watt, and Co’.’s premises;. and their proximity to the river wOulil have given them every advantage in stopping the progress of the flames., IHias been with this as it has been with many other suggestions made by the press for the public good. No attention is paid to them until some great public calamity is occasioned by the neglect. Then men’s attention is forced to ; the consideration- and employmentof, , measures which, if. timeously used, wpuld have prevented the loss of property, qr health, or life. So it has been now, and one {advantage that will arise to the - community! Ifroin the loss at present borne by a few, will be the security arising from an efficient fire brigade, 'ihere area great many requisites to obtain efficiency jj but we have no doubt that the members will i not only obtain a knowledge of what these are,! hut also make themselves thoroughly masters) in practice of all that ; is needed tq make the; brigade thoroughly and continuously useful.) The garrison engine was, not very long since, j always held ready for immediate action, and: the men had practice in the use of it when Capt. Paul was here; hut of late, we understand; they have not been called out for this exercise, and the consequence was that the other morning; The. engine was of no use till the greatest fury or'the flames was over. Had the fire been at the barracks, instead of the beach, we should probably soon, hear of this practice being resumed. ‘ Not ofily, therefore, must the point of thorough efficiency be reached ; it must also he, maintained. The formation of a fire brigade' is a great point gained. Whenever a fire takes'; place near the river,' their engine will he of j great use, because a supply of water will be; n( band. But fire. may. break out. at some' j part of the town where there is no water. [There, their ladders and ropes may be of use not their engine. Their right hand will it were, cut off. Is the town to be exposed to such a hazard? >The houses at a! distance from the river afre daily becoming; more numerous, and more 1 -'thickly clustered! and so the danger l is daily growing in magnitude. There - is one 1 - way by which: the- fbwnr could be thoroughly protected from fire without the-employment ,of an engine. That is, by bringing down water io. pipes from Virginia. lake. The fall of the water would give a far, greater force than any engine that is likely to be procured, and the water could be qppiied far quickly and more effect-, ivelyl . Avgood deal -of- money would no doubt be needed at first ; but it’m^hfbe'borrowed;

and the interest paid by the levying of a wafer rate. . Two'objects would bo .gained. The danger from fire would be vastly lessened, and a good supply of wholesome water would be given to the inhabitants. But it is not likely that either of these objects will be secured until half of Victoria avenue is burned down, or the to.wn decimated by disease, induced by drinking water impregnated- with all the, filth - which uow saturates, the ground on which the town stauds.. Another preventive to the spread of fire where houses are built close together, would be the erection of a party wall of brick, between every house and its neighbour. Tfad > there been such partitions, instead of empty " spaces, between the buildings recently burned,: the fire would have been arrested in the house in which it originated until assistance could have been given tq extinguish it. These walls, let it be understood, we. would* propose build-' ing outside of the weather boarding of the houses, so that iu case .of an earthquake they might be supported on each side; and at A ‘ breadth of two bricks would be quite sufficient, their weight would not be such as' to endanger the buildings next them if an earthquake should shake them. Such walls, and corrugated iron* roofs, would greatly diminish the risk from fire, and the extra expence would soon be paid , by the difference in the premium of insurance. There is another means by which the danger-, might be lessened, althongh it is not so likely to be adopted, because its adoption would, require buildings to be in a much more substantial way than at present. It is now frequently found in use in JFngland i» places where valuable property is kept, and especially where the danger of fire is greater, tliau usual ; and we should think it Worthy of. trial here where goods to any amount are regularly stored. tf'e refer to cisterns on the* roofs of houses, which during the winter the rain would keep constantly filled, andVhich; if needful, might, be, kept full in summer by artificial ineans. ,„lii such cases, the means of stopping fire is at once available,-and at, ho-' great extra' cost.

It came out in the evidence, that the towns* people cannot safely depend on the garrison giviiig an immediate alarm!' A fire may, it seems, be burning for some time withoutrthe sentries seeing it; and it was therefore a very good suggestion of the jjury, that an addition j should be: made to the police force, with.the view, ive presume, of having sotiae watch kept : during the night. - ' ; j The inquiry into the origin of the fire has [not given the slightest ground for.suspecting j tlmt it was. the act of an; incendiary. Ireis ichiefly interesting as, illujstratjye, of the well j known truth, that the eye requires very .careful j training to be able to judge correctly of unaccustomed objects suddenly presented to it, more especially if in circumstances likely to cause excitement in the observer. The cxj traordinarily conflicting. nathreVqf the evidence [can only he accounted. folk by this liability to error, and by the rapid progress of the fire, which must have assumed, different phases every moment. Any ojie who looks "to the character of thq evidence will have some difficulty in arriving at the conclusion come to by the jury, but will, rather . be,..inclined to the opinion, that it is impossible from it to decide in which of the two buildings tho fire,originated. The matter is of no greit injportance practically. But there should be some distinct understanding in this place, that good* sent to any one for repair M or sale, or storage, are understood to be insured, unless express intimation to the contrary ia given by the storekeeper. !

The case of Mr. HarrisOn is a very simple one. ,Sonie years, ago that gentleman accepted the office of sheriff of this district. £ome time afterwards the General Assembly of . 1858 passed an act disqualifying persons holding certain offices of.emolument under the General Government from sitting in the General As- . seinbly and Provincial Councils. One of the offices, enumerated is that of sheriff. Mr. Harrison, on going up. to this session of the Council was met by this act, and did not take, his seat.. His colleagues advised, him .t0.,g0 to Auckland, and have the question of his right to a seat in the Assembly tried and settled in the Assembly itself.* This Mr. Harrison declined doing, but wrote to the Government, resigning .his;, sheriffship, and asking if he could legally take his seat, intending to remain here, till a reply was received .from Auckland. The tenor of this reply it requires uo great sagacity to predict. It will he a very agreeahle.disappqintment'indeed if it be in favour of Mr. Harrison’s retaining Ins seat. By the strict legal interpretation of the act, it seems very clear that .he is disqualified from w sitting in the /Assembly, The fact of his hav- I ing received no' emolument might be a reason l [for the Assembly making an exception in'his ; favour, •# lie applied to them, doubt if jit will make any difference in the Attorney j General’s opinion. * Hall* cited j.hy “ an Elector” in another column, is not a jprecedent. Mr. Hall sat as a member of the house of Representatives de/om the Disqualification act came into , not since. On .the’ whole, we think Mr. Harrison’s best course I would have been to have gone to Auckland, [and, if he could not do better, to have resigned Ihis seat. Anew. writw.onld hayebeen immeidiately issued, and. he could, and no doubt would, have been re-elected in his absence, in ■time to have,', been of essential service tp his constituency and to hiis country in Jiffs session. As it is, there is little hope’ either of his receiving, am invitation to. .Auckland in hi? preor of his timely re-election. The Stafford ministry have already proved themselves, so .ready to make use of far less excusable [shifts'for party purposes, that to suppose them capable of furtnering’ his return, or that of any repmeiitatiYO whom this djstric*

is. likely to send up, would be to suppose them capable of a much more generous 1 action than they have ever yet performed. It is with much regret that we refer to Mr. Harrison’s uttempt at explanation at the meeting held on the 30th. ujt. Jt satisfied us that lie had acted- very injudiciously, although, no doubt, to the best of his judgment. He seems not to know the adage.—-“He that puts pn a public gown l must put off .a private person-” A/r. Harrison ought to know 'tha’t a, man's personal feelings, should not sway him, in his public conduct. He ought also to Itiiow,' that whenever .a public man is in doubt as to the course lie ought to' pursue in regard to a political matter, he submits the case to his political friends, and acts According to their judgment, if it is not contrary 1 to his convictions of dhty. The only duty brought forward by A/r.'Tfarrisori, as preventing him from going to y/uckland with the other members, was a simple matter'; - which he Couhl perfectly well have . delegated to\,another, and which a gentleman here; diad offered to do for him. But he is possessed of too exquisite a sensibility to bear a few mbs from his political opponents in the house. He would rather have Wahganui disfranchised than have his feelings wounded by the feeble witticisms or the clumsy jokes of the present ministry and their supporters. He, and not his constituency, is the aggrieved party. They elected him, not, : it appears, to the ease and -honour of luxuriating in the .Speaker’s chair, but to the humiliation of standing at the door knocking for admittance. Really, Mr. Harrisnii must have a very low opinion of the intellect of the electors, when ho offers such reasons for leaving Wellington without having informed his colleagues what he proposed doing, and against their advice, and for handing over the interests of his constituents, without their consent, to the tender mercies of the .Stafford ministry. And he'shows a still more deplorable opinion of their- intellect, when he thinks it necessary to explain that the Wellington Provincial Government never offered to pay his expences to /fuckland out of the public purse! With the utmost respect for Mr. Harrison personally, we, cannot consider his explanation satisfactory. An d we think that a regard to his own political character, and the interests of his constituents, should induce him to proceed to Auckland by the steamer on the 16th, and there dobis duty as the representative of Wanganui.,