FIRE BOARD.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 78, 4 April 1910, Page 7

FIRE BOARD.

SHOULD ONE BE CONSTITUTED? SUBJECT AGAIN DISCUSSED. The question of the constitution of a Fire Board for Wellington will, it is understood, be made the subject of discussion during the course of the Mayoral election. When the Act first came into force a Fire Board was constituted for the city, and was in operation for some months, when the City Council, in the exercise of powers which it then possessed, decided to revert to the old system, which is now in operation. Supporters of tho Firo Board system urge that a considerable amount of saving of the ratepayers' money would be effected by again taking advantage of the Act. The present cost of the Welling ton Fire Brigade is about £8000 a year. It will probably be more next year, but the supporters of the Fire Board system take that as the basis of computation. The whole of that cost falls on tho city at present. If a Fire Board were constituted the Government would pay £400. and the balance of the £8000— £7600 — would be -borne equally by the board and the insurance companies. That would be £3800 for each, or a saving to the city of £4200. Under the Act, however, the buildings and plant of the Fire Brigade would be taken over by the board, which would pay interest on it at the rate of 5 per cent for twenty-six years, at the end of which time it would become the property of the board. The last valuation of the brigade property vraa £40,000, 6 per cent, interest on which would be £2000 a year, thus reducing the direct cost to th« municipality lo £1800 a year. If a board were appointed it would consist of three- members representing the City Council, three members representing the insurance companies, and one member representing tho Government. Supporters of the project, however, are by no means confident that any effort made to bring the city under the control of a Fire Boara is likely to be successful. A poll of the ratepayers has to be taken at the time of the municipal or Mayoral election, and it is necessary to constitute a valid poll that two-thirds of the ratepayers on the roll shall record their votes. In view of the lethargy displayed by the ratepayers in connection with other questions submitted to them, it is considered to bo too much to expect that two-thirds would go to the poll on such an occa-