N.Z. FIRE LOSS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIX, Issue 220, 4 September 1929, Page 7

N.Z. FIRE LOSS

AVERAGE OF 22/6 PER HEAD CAPTAIN HUGO'S ANNUAL REPORT. COMPULSORY TEACHING OF FIRE PREVENTION URGED. IBy Telegraph-Special to ‘'Tribune.") Wellington, Sept. 4. The Chief Inspector of Fire Brigades. Captain Hugo, in his annual report, says that the fire loss throughout New Zealand for the twelve months ended December 31, 1928, is estimated at £1,636,118. This is a conservative estimate and it is a safe assumption that the actual loss exceeds the amount stated. This, with the population for that period estimated at 1,453,517, gives an average loss of 22/6 per head of the population. The loss in the 49 fire districts for the same twelce-month period amounted to £683,082, which, with a population of 611,280 residing within the districts, gives a per capita loss of 22/4, whilst the loss for the 842,237 persons resident in other than fire districts amounted to £953,036. an average of 22/7 per capita “Carelessness in regard to fire and its consequences is too deeply ingrained to expect any radical reform in that respect in our present adult population,” stated Captain Hugo, “and in my opinion one of the mosi effective means of reducing the prevailing excessive number of outbreaks of fire and which at the present time is proving to be so in the United States of America and Canada, is the compulsory teaching of fire prevention in our schools and colleges and by that method inculcating in the rising generation an individual sense of responsibility and care in respect to danger and loss by fire.”