FIFTY YEARS AGO

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22724, 10 May 1937, Page 6

FIFTY YEARS AGO

FIRE-FIGHTING APPARATUS A fire*which destroyed the Post and I Telegraph office in Wellington 50 years ■ago directed public attention to the 1 necessity for increased efficiency in , life-saving apparatus. The following [ extract is frorji the New Zealand | Herald of May 9, 1887: — "A resolution, was passed at the recent Fire Brigades' Conference in |- Wellington to the effect that at future competitions, prizes and certificates I should be offered for the best exhibits of life-saving apparatus. At the present jj time in New Zealand there ran be no question that too little attention is • paid to these useful appliances to | which, in crowded cities especially, so [ many people annually owe their lives. The ordinary fire escapes and a few I ropes coiled inside the upper windows ; of some ol our hotels constitute prac- | tically the whole of the life-saving apparatus to be'found in Wellington. The Fire Brigades' Association in \ stimulating rescafch in such a humani- :< tarian field of inquiry is doing excellent ■ work which is worthy of all commenda- | tion, and we hope to see it taken up j far and wide. There are busy brains j and willing hands in New Zealand to i conceive and to contrive, and we now i indicate- one direction in which genius I and energy mav find a worthy outlet." > /. ;