FIRE INQUESTS.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14600, 26 February 1913, Page 5

FIRE INQUESTS.

THE SYSTEM ADVOCATED. AN IMPORTANT MATTER. At yesterday's sitting of the Firo Board Conference, the very important subject of tho holding of inquests into fires was raised. The Auckland delegates proposod that section 46 of the Firo Brigades Act should be amended to provide for tho payment of the expenses of coroner's inquests. In support, it was said that an inquest might be held by the Fire Board, but no provision was madofor the payment of the costs, it wag felt that either the Board or the Government should foot the bill. Tho testimony given by the delegates from Dunedin and Christchurch was that where coroners had been asked to hold inquests into fires, they had been held, and no request mado for payment. The Auckland delegates, in reply ; stated that where an insurance co'iipany asked the Board" there to hold fn inquest, it had been asked to pay the costs, and that was felt to ba an unfair thing, because such a company might becomo marked and loso business. Mr T. Chalmer (Dunedin) said he. would like to urge the holding of systematic enquiries into the cause of fires. He felt it would do a great deal of, good in eliminating fires and exposing causes. He quoted a Home authority to tho effect that the holding of inquests was a great preventive of arson and fraud on the insurance companies. The effect was cducationil. and it led people to be more careful in dealing with fires in both business and private olaces. The inflammab'e nature of celluloid and flannelette had been exposed, and it was felt that vhe system of fire inquests should bo very generally extended. On the particular point of tho remit he wouid urgo that it should not be adopted, because it would spread the idea that the Fire Board was responsible for the cost cf such an enquiry, which certainly had not been the case in the past. Mr Michel (Hokitika) said he believed the Act already gave sufficient power for enquiry, but if there were not then let tho Fire Board pay tho cost necessary. Mr Chalmer further said that the police would not ask for enquiries into fires unless they deemed there were suspicious circumstances in th- case. But his Board took a more charitable view of the case, and thought a great many fires were due not to criminal intent but to what might be termed criminal carelessness in construction, the carrying on of works in unsuitable buildings, and bad stora__e methods. He. therefore, believed that systematic enquiry would lead to revelations whicii would promote knowledge that wouid reduce the number of fires. The specific proposal that provisi_.n should be made for the payment of inquest costs was lost. Towards tho close of the meeting this formal motion from tho Dunedin Fire Board was carried : — "That this Conferenco support the request mado by the Dunedin Fire Board to the Minister for Internal Affairs, that enquiries bo held into the caus> of all fires, tho origin of which is not clearly apparent.