CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1588, 21 January 1884, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

I THE LATE FIRE, d To 'IUE Editoh, - L Sir,—lii your report of the late fire ir you say that the Fire Brigade were not so successful , as usual and that they got into muddle through fixing the 13 engine in Chapel-street, Your reporter has been misled, for there was no muddle whatever unless in the vision of your informant, The engine was [! fised in the first instance at the Chapel*.

Street liro-plug because; as tlie vivei bed was known to bo nearly dry, i was belioved to 'give tlio nearest avail iible water supply, Although one c the officers ruling up found a pool i the river bed, it was so shallow that liolo had to to dug for the suction hose and at first only two men and a bo could be obtained to pump tlio engine As it was, tlio water—scant in quantit and muddy—had, with great difficulty to be forced through 700 feot of host passed over fonccs and outhouses i: order to reach' the Are, Besides wan of water the Brigade were short-hande (a dozen of the members being absen from town). The alarm was no given till about ten minutes after th fire had broken out, and beforo th spot could bo reached the flames hat obtained a complete mastery of th house, so tlfat nothing could save tin property, You say that under th supervision of Fire-inspector Gappe some of the onlookers saved the adja cont building ; but your reportei cannot be aware that an old settle: (Mr Woodroofe) worked quite as encr getically as Inspector Gapper, and tlia the neighboriiiE; buildings werenevei f&t really endangered. Fad they been the firemen would have dono tliei " best, and even ivitii, all the drawkek from which.they.suffered,,l have in doubt they would have been ai successful as they were at- the towi ball fire, and repeatedly since Not only on tlio present,-, but 01 several occasions of late .> I lmv< noticed that when outbreaks of,fin have been suppressed, while abundant credit is given to outsiders the firemen are ignored by the press, If we worked like some organisations am made confusion, worse confounded ] could account for this, but I think it i: a poor reward to a body of volunteer; whose only wages is the esteem o: their follow citizens,'to be told that lliej create a middle, and that others di all the work. If those who criticise tin brigade would bear a hand at the pumi instead of fault-finding they would be doing a much better service than it trying to throw dirty water on tin comrades of, Your Obedient Servant. A Fireman. [We said nothing in our report about "getting into a muddle," Oil] correspondent is too sensitive. Wj hope that the majority of the mem bers of the brigade are men euongl to invite rather than deprecate fail criticism.—Ed: W.D.]