Letter To Minister

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30542, 10 September 1964, Page 18

Letter To Minister

A claim that fire boards in New Zealand are controlled by insurance companies is made in a letter to the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr Seath) from the secretary of the New Zealand Federated Fire Brigades’ Association (Mr G. G. Walker). The experience of members of the association was that fire boards were controlled by insurance companies, because the insurance companies had a right to nominate four members to each board and also four members to the Fire Service Council, the letter said. “The result is that they are not interested in better conditions for our members,” the letter said, “and they are not interested in better fire protection for the cities and suburbs.”

There was a miserly attitude to fire bridgadesmen’s wages, hours of work, and conditions generally, and members found that the way staff was kept short to a minimum for fire-fighting purposes “was little short of criminal.” “Play Of Statistics”

“The boards do it by a clever play of statistics," said Mr Walker. “The Fire Service Council says in its drill books and at the training school at Wellington that a crew of a fire engine or a drill squad should be an officer and four men. The fire boards agree on this, but, by providing free accommodation for auxiliary firemen and using volunteer firemen, they say that their fire appliances are fully staffed. “But in practice there are many times during the day when these auxiliary and volunteer men are involved in their own occupations and the fire appliances are manned with crews of only two or three professional fire-fighters. These two or three men are expected to do the work of a crew of five.” Mr Walker said that his association could say more of the attitude of fire boards of placing life and property, both of the association’s own members and the members of the public, last and profits to their companies first. “But the feeling of this federation is not to look at the past,” said Mr Walker. “We are looking into the future to see what can be done to change the present and the future.”

Election JJrged The association, said Mr Walker, would strongly urge that the constitution of the fire boards be amended through the Fire Services Act so that the boards could be elected by the citizens of the towns they served, instead of being appointed. “We assure you that the improvement in industrial outlook would be fantastic, as at the present time, in most cities of New Zealand, our members have no confidence at'all in our boards,” said Mr Walker. “And it is the strong feeling of the men, who wish to perform a public service of the highest order, that they are being hamstrung in those efforts by big business interested only in big profits.”