FOR THOSE BRIGADESMAN WHO HAVE SERVED

Feilding Star, Volume 3, Issue 319, 21 July 1925, Page 4

FOR THOSE BRIGADESMAN WHO HAVE SERVED

There will he general approval of that new clause in the consolidating and amending Fire Brigades Bill now before Parliament which makes pro-

vision for gratuities or pensions mr

firemen who retire alter long service. There is no liner, body, as there is no risker volunteer game in the Dominion than that ol our tire Brigades. 'l’liey are paid men in the cities, but in all the towns such as Feilding the men give their services and risk their limbs and lives just for the sheer love of service. If they therefore spend the strenglldul years of their lives ;.(.s bngndcsmen gratuitously with the result that much property is saved or protected, the very least the State, can do is to grant them a pension in Llte:r old np;t v .of n f ter so many years’ servin', il they or their dependents need any aid. It is something to rejoice over that there, are

so many young and not so young men who make, a hobby-, ol their attachment to Fire Brigade’s. Not the least faithful, enthusiastic and valuable arc the members, ol the.Feilding Brigade. Indeed, it may well be el aimed lor one oi its members, Mr Dan Kitchen,, that he is the veteran of all veterans, the very doyen ol all active fire, hrigadesmen ■ of the Dominion. Mr Kitchen .joined up with a brigade when he was a youth in Wanganui, and, with an interregnum of only a lew mouths, has ltdlowed the hydrant ever since—and that means the great total ol lo years; and wo have s oon lor ourselves that he is just as keenly on the job to-day as he was in ’i<S, whether it, be ■turning out when the hell rings its alarm or for the drill, the parade or any inter-brigade contest. Our bats are off to the hrigadesmen and we assure members of Parliament. Lhal they cannot exceed the quality <>l good treatment extended under the Bill to our volunteer fire-fighters.