NEW UNIFORMS FOR FIREMEN

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26672, 5 March 1952, Page 5

NEW UNIFORMS FOR FIREMEN

PROPOSALS BY SERVICES COUNCIL (New Zealand Press Association) PALMERSTON NORTH, March 4. New Zealand's 500 full-time and 2800 volunteer firemen, serving in 208 brigades throughout the country, may soon have a new standardised uniform. If, as is expected, proposals for this change are approved by the interested organisations, personal equipment and new badges of rank will also be standardised, bringing New Zealand's fire services into conformity with the most modern fire service practice in the United Kingdom and other countries These measures, which are designed in the interest of the operational efficiency, economy, and prestige of the service result from the Fire Services Act, 1949, which envisages the standardisation of plant, uniform, personal equipment, and ranks of officers so as to assist in the development of the fire service in New Zealand and, in particular, in the smaller urban areas.

The new standards, which have been drawn up by the Dominion Chief Fire Officer (Mr T. A. Varley) and have already received the unanimous approval of the Fire. Services Council, are being discussed by delegates at the annual conference of the United Fire Brigades’ Association at Palmerston North to-day. and will also be discussed within the next month by the New Zealand Fire Brigades’ Union of Employees, the New Zealand Fire Boards’ Association, and the National Union of Employers. As most of these organisations, together with" the Government, which will also be called on to bear its share of the cost, are represented directly on the Fire Services Council, it seems fairly certain that the new measures will be adopted without even minor alterations.