THE FIRE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 67, 12 December 1907, Page 6

THE FIRE.

It is impossible yet to estimate the full extent of the loss involved in the destruction of Parliament House yesterday morning. Measured in terms of what it will cost the country to replace what can be replaced, the loss must be very great; but there was stored in the ruined structure a mass of records which can never be replaced, and the loss of which may turn out to be a calamity transcending the. loss of the building itself. We need not refer to the heavjr bereavement of Sentiment: the sweeping away of the centre of the natiou's historical affections, and the conversion into ashes of the unique workshop of the Dominion's nationhood. That must be borne as best it may. There arc two consolations in this grievous national loss. The papers and records which have been destroyed contained, in allprobability, little of a character vitally necessary to the transaction of the country's current business. Moreover, the valuable Library has escaped without injury, and remains at this moment intact and almost undisturbed. As the custodians of the institution, and as the people who will suffer most inconvenience from the disaster, the Premier and his colleagues are assured of the sympathy of the entire public of the Dominion, and of the people of the other self-govern-ing Dominions of the Empire. Special sympathy will be felt with Mr. M'Nab, who, it is feared, has had undone much of that' historical research work which he has conducted for the enrichment, of the records of the country. Although the flames had so strongly established themselves before repressive measures could be applied that the work of the Eire Brigade was from the beginning- almost hopeless, the firemen are deserving of high credit for the pluck and persistence with which they applied themselves to their vain labours. Similar praise .is the due, also, of the police authorities, and of the many private citizens who assisted in the work of salvage. Like every catastrophe, this one has its lesson, and the public will' not be satisfied with anything less than the plainest and most convincing evidence that the lesson will be taken to heart by 'the Government. That the wooden composition of the major portion of Parliament House lias not involved the finances and the general public business of the country in hopeless confusion, is due to the fact that the bulk of the bookkeeping records are stored elsewhere— in the largest wooden building in the world. For years cautious people have been stilling the apprehensions and fears which are inspired in them by reflection upon the contents of that large building by telling themselves that the fire appliances inside the structure are sufficient to secure it against destruction. Yesterday's fire has impugned the efficiency of the appliances upon which the Government and the country have- been relying, and there is probably nobody who is not to-day convinced that an early morning outbreak of fire in the Departmental Buildings would almost certainly prove beyond the power of man to subdue. Replying- last May to a protest by the Mayor of Wellington against the proposed addition of a wooden annexe to the Departmental Buildings, the Hon. W. Hall-Jones sought to defend the Government's, indefensible breach of the " brifck area " by-law by a mass of irrelevancies in which there was only quo pertinent contention. " Ko building in the cit&" lie said.

" is so well protected from fire as the Departmental Buildings," nnd, after enumerating the adjacent fire-plugs, he added: " The Government staff of messengers is trained and regularly drilled as a fire brigade. Moreover,' the building is never left—night or day, and week days, Sundays, and holidays alike—without an efficient guard of men, whose principal duty is to protect the structure from fire." Useless as a defence of the Government's disregard of the "brick area" by-law, this statement was, nevertheless, reassuring—until yesterday. The Departmental Buildings, whatever the Government may say, are at the mercy of Fortune. When we think of the state of efficiency of prevention, and the labour and vigilance necessary to be superimposed upon that efficiency, and the good fortune that must come to the aid of it all—when we think

that this extensive obligation is the only surety against an appalling disaster, we are convinced that it is time to remove the more important records of government from so dangerous a habitation. A conflagration in the Departmental Buildings also would threaten a long reach of Lambton

Quay, as well as temporarily wrecking the process of government. The fire-appliances of Parliament House were inspected three days ago, and passed as efficient, yet it has been shown that they were not only useless in such a general blaze as yesterday's, but it has been stated that they were so defective as probably to be of little use even on less extreme occasions.