FIRE BRIGADE SUBSIDIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19509, 13 December 1926, Page 12

FIRE BRIGADE SUBSIDIES.

DESIRE FOR AN INCREASE

STATEMENT BY MINISTER.

The smajlpess of the" Government subsidies towards, the cost of the maintenance of fire brigades was referred to. by various speakers at the official opening of the new fire station at Onehunga on Saturday. It was stated that a subsidy of only £SO was provided by the Government towards the annual expenses of the Onehunga Brigade, compared with the £I6OO a year which the council and the underwriters were providing on equal terms. This seemed a very small amount, it was remarked, considering the great amount of Government property which the brigade ware called upon to protect. "Everybody seems to he efficient except the Government," remarked Mr. Bollard, amid laughter and applause, in commencing his address. However, he said, the subsidy had already been increased a little, and as soon as it was possible there would be a further increase. But they must remember that there were quite a lot of brigades in the Dominion besides Onehunga, and he was sore they would not like the subsidy increased unduly, if it entailed' the withdrawal of the * perquisites now enjoyed by the brigade . members themselves. Captain Watts, advisory superintendent of the New Zealand Fire Brigades' Association,' stated at ; the social in the evening that although the Government gave the small subsidy in question to the forty brigades which were under fire boards, there were nearly a, hundred which received no subsidy at all. In any case he thought the free railway trip given to brignde members who attended the annual competitions was a very small recompense for the five months' of special training ■which they had to undergo in order to qualify.,.