FIRE BOARD SCHEME.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 183, 4 August 1932, Page 9

FIRE BOARD SCHEME.

REJECTED IN MOUNT EDEi FEAR OF HIGHER COST. The Mount Eden Borough Council, at a special meeting yesterday afternoon rejected the proposal to form a metro politan fire board in Auckland. Th< chief objection to the scheme was thai it would mean additional cost to the ratepayers.

At the invitation of the council. Mr Gii-ling Butcher, Government inspecto of fire brigades under fire boards, den! with the position Mount Eden would b in if a metropolitan board were set ii| He quoted many advantages, which 1: considered a metropolitan scheme won! confer upon the borough in fire preve: tion, and said that by organisation an efficiency a large proportion of fire lo.«could be covered before a brigade lef its station.

The Mount Eden brigade, said Mi Butcher, was not efficient on the p<" sonnel side, the machine had no puni' and the pressure of water in the ditrict did not exceed 001b, while the flov 'at dead ends of the mains was not mnr than 120 gallons a minute. He quot" figures showing the cost of fire boardin areas comparable to Mount Eden, a" said the latter could have all the fl>' vantages of a fire board at a cost n' £1100 a year. Under a fire board MomEden would require to have three n>" at the station, and seven paid ami iaries, and a pump would also be new-

After further discussion the council decided that it was not ill favour o' the proposal.