MONDAY'S BLACK-OUT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 43, 20 February 1942, Page 6

MONDAY'S BLACK-OUT

No General Mobilisation

The E.P.S. test on Monday night is to be simply a black-out lest. Only members of wardens' groups are to report to their posts on the sounding of the alarm.

The Mayor stated at the meeting of the Central Committee yesterday that the E.P.S. authorities of the environs of Wellington (Hutt Valley, eastern bays, Makara and Hutt Counties) are asked to cooperate in the exercise.

The Central Committee is sending forward to the Government a recommendation that for blackout purposes there should be a regional control for the whole Wellington area—city, borough, town, and county. The committee cqnsiders also, and is recommending, that the fire-fighting services of the city and Hutt Valley should be placed upon a fully coordinated basis.

though certain inconvenience may result. Such inconvenience will be little compared to the loss of the entire premises, and possibly the entire city block.

"The .reduction of these needless hazards in days of war gives immediate additional security, while in days of peace such a contribution to the reduction of the hazards in our city is no less desirable. Every article of value which is consumed by fire is not only a loss to' its owner, but is a national loss, which always is shared by the whole community at large. "The establishment of a fire-watch-ing service, therefore, is to the national benefit, and the terms employer and employee are not recognised within the framework of the organisation in so far as the question of whose property is being given protection. Watchers are guarding the nation's assets, and the nation's means of sustaining the source of livelihood. In addition, they are doing what lies within their power to enabie the fire-fighting forces to concentrate upon those vital areas which are beyond the capacity of firewatchers or where life is imperilled to a major extent.

"No question of payment for firewatching services is involved. The fact that an individual may be called upon to watch the area from which he derives his income is but incidental. Employers are required also to perform watching service in like manner to all others who come within the scope of the regulation."