FIRE BOARD.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 19 April 1910, Page 6

FIRE BOARD.

SHOULP ONE BE CONSTITUTED AT WELLINGTON? SUBJECT AGAIn"dISCU6SEIJ. The question of the constitution of a Fire Board for, Wellington will/ii is understood, says the "Post," be ma do the subject of discussion during the course of the Mayoral election. Wh"ii !-he Act first came into force a Five Board was constituted for the city, was in operation for some month 1 ;, Then 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 the Fire Board system urge tlur i considerable amount of saving of 'he ratepayers' money would be effec, ,ed by again taking advantage of t'»f Act. The present cost of the Wellington Fire Brigade is about £BOOO a yeav. [t will probably be mor e next yea'', but the supporters of the Fire Board system take that as the basis of 'computation. The whole of that or.s' falls on the city at present. If a Fire Board were constituted I M. Government would pay £4OO and the oalance of the £Bo*oo—£76oo—won'd m borne equally by the board and the insurance companies. That would be £3BOO for each, or a saving to the city »f £4200. Under the Act. however, .-.he buildings and plant of the Eibrigade would be taken over by the board, which would pay interest on it st the rate of 5 per cent for twentysix years, at the end of which time it would become the property of the noard. The last valuation .of the tnigade property was £40.000. 5 per ■•ent interest on which would be £2OOO a year, thus reducing the direct .•ost to the municipality to £IBOO a year. Tf a board were appointed it would ."onsist of three members representing the City Council, three members representing the insurance companies, and .in'? member representing the Government. Supporters of the project, how ever, are by no means confident thn' any effort made to bring the eiiy under the control of a Fire Board V I'kely to be successful. A poll of Lit' ratepayers has to be taken at the time of the municipal or Mayoral electi"'.. and it is necessary to constitute ;> '•alid poll that two-thirds of the ratepayers on the roll shall record thf.ir votes. In view of the lethargy d;splayed by the ratepayers in ConnerHon with other questions submitti-rt to them, it is considered to b<> !<v> much to expect that two-thirds would go to the poll on such an occasion.

A case, not concluded when we went to press,'occupied the. attention of the Magistrate's Court for a considerable time to-day. The plaintiff is John Sharp, junr., and he seeks to recover from J. Langley Adams the sum of £63 4s 3d, amount of a judgment secured in the Supreme Court in connection with a mining case in which the present plaintiff was concerned and in which the defendant was joined as a third party. Lengthy legal argument was heard by the Magistrate-, Mr. C. R. Fell appearing for the plaintiff and Mr. A. T. Maginnity for the defendant. A young man named Sydney Scott created a sensation at Manly beach, Sydney, the other day, by swimming beoiid the danger signal and then throwing up his hands as though he were in distress. There were thousands on the beach at the time, and Reynolds, the life-saver employed by the -u.anly Council, and Lawrence, a member of the Manly Life Saving Club, who was fully dressed, plunged in to his asistance. When they got within 15 yards of him he stood up and walked out of the water laughing. The police, hauled him before the Water' Police Court, and the Magistrate, as a warning to people fond of such forms of amusement, fined him £3 or a month's imprisonment.

A story is just noiw current in Loudon society which,, from its eireumstant'ia'lity and its monstrous conclusions, would suffice io take away tho breath of people les habitually trailed iiii scandal (writes Sir Henry Lucy in the "Sydney Morning Herald.") Some weeks ago there suddenly died in Paris -a well-known memlber of r.he House of Commons, heir to a great peerage. It was staid that he succumbed to a sudden attack or' pneumonia. The body was brought home, and interred near his ancestrr.l home, among general expressions of profound' grief at the sudden cut tin 3 off of a stil young life, which had before it promise of high distinction. Jt is now gravely whispered in drawingroom's'and told at dinner-tables that this explanation is a pure invention. What actually happened, one is assured, i sthat the noble lord, having observed on the part of a friend rough treatment of a wife recently married, remonstrated with him. Tre resunlt was an angry scene, followed by a challenge to deadly combat. Accepting it, the two made a tryst in the neighbourhood of Paris, and at tne first round the well-meaning friend was shot through the heart by the erring husband. In order to hush, up scandal, the story of death by pneumonia was, by comanon con sent between the two families concerned, concocted, and published. This is pretty well as it stands. The climax is reached by th 0 further assertion that one or. the duellists is a member of the present Cabinet, who. apparently having killed his friend, returned to his office in Downingstreet, quietly took up the threads of administrative ifousiness, and may be seen any night on the Treasury Bench in the House of Commons. The wildest nventiooi. of a reckless romancer never soared above the bo'd heights of this story. 'Twice withu the paist week I have been asked hy persons otherwise apparently sane, whether I have heard it, and whether I think there is anything in it.