EMERGENCY FIRE SCHEME

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23364, 25 June 1941, Page 3

EMERGENCY FIRE SCHEME

DRAINAGE board not to CONTRIBUTE The Christchurch Drainage Board decided last evening to decline to contribute to the sum being asked for by the Christchurch Fire Board to meet the cost of emergency fire-fighting equipfnent and services. The cost is being apportioned among the local authorities in the area. The drainage board’s levy amounts to £3O 5s 4d, but members took the attitude that it would constitute a double call on the ratepayers. The letter from the board said that in the Christchurch emergency fire area, approximately £16,000 would be required to secure the equipment. Nearly half of that amount would'be provided by the Government. The local bodies in the area and the insurance companies would have to find £8450 18s. •

Mr E. H. S. Hamilton, the .chairman of the board’s finance committee, .said that the collection of the money "was the function of the primary rating authorities in the, area, such as the Christchurch City Council and the county councils. For the drainage board to rate for such a sum, however small, would amount to a double rate. members agreed that the request be declined for the reason that any contribution from the board would be an overlapping of the collecting functions of the City Council and other authorities in the area. Members agreed that although the sum was small, a principle was involved, and ratepayers ought not to be rated more than once. An additional reason given by the chairman, Mr J. W. Beanland, was that the board was itself spending a lot of money on the protection of its own facilities, and other local bodies were not being asked to contribute directly, ■