SEIZED BY COUNCIL

Feilding Star, Volume 7, Issue 2303, 4 September 1929, Page 6

SEIZED BY COUNCIL

10,000 GALLONS OF PETROL

REQUEST, TO MAGISTRATE

(Per Press Association). Christchurch, Sept. 3

When tlie petrol store at the corner of Madras and Carlyle streets caught lire recently, there wer e 188,140 gallons of dangerous good 9 on the premises. The approximate quantity of petrol salvaged was ,112,772 gallons. Already 10,164 gallons 'of this quantity have been seized by the City Council. The Council last (jvenlng decided to prosecute the owners of tlie store on a charge that they had stored an excessive quantity of dangerous goods and to ask the Magistrate . tlita the amount should b e confiscated.

Councillor W. Williamson, in suggesting that the matter be referred hack to the By-laws Committee, said that it was very drastic to ask a Magistrate to confiscate 10,000 gallons of petrol. v “in connection with thi s fire, we just escaped a terrible catastrophe,” saitl th e Mayor, who said that an excessive quantity of petrol had been stored. ' Not'only, had it been kept in the store, hut tlie company had actually stored thousands of gallons In unlicensed premises, and quite a lot hail been-stored in the open air. It was a positive danger to the people. “Jf traders are allowed to get away with this sort of thing, where Is our responsibility to; the'community?” lie asked.

The'amendment to defer considera-

tion was lost