A TERRIBLE WARNING!

NZ Truth, Issue 71, 27 October 1906, Page 1

A TERRIBLE WARNING !

Ever since it first began, to look around it and "take notice," while yet it was an infant among' the newspapers of Wellington, ."Truth" has. hammered awa.v at the "burning" question of the utter inadequacy of the city's fire-fighting system. It did not require the deductive powers of a Sherlock. Holmes to detect that the Brigade'" and-.its were alike, inadequate to^such a >cailas they were liable to have hiade > upon them at any moment , while; ; i 6: persons not moss-grown m parochialism and blindly forgetful, through, use, of the special circumstances tliat go to make Wellington remarTcably,, susceptible - to the attacks of the fire-fiend, the meacreness of the city's protective measures was starWingly Apparent. Beins, as it is, composed, m a great measure- of ramshackle', wooden shan-' ties dating back to the forties and fifties and enjoying, as it does, a larger proportion of windy days than any othar city m New Zealand; to say nothing of its steep hillsides ■crowded with residential buildings, it does not require a' vast amount of perspicuity to recognise that Wellington requires a stronger and better equipped fire brigade than any of her sister "cities. And she has about the worst of the fair four. .The staff, as iar as it goes, is thoroughly able, it?, head a thoroughly trained and :ompetent man •' ;but tliere is an old pri%rb ,sa,u , sa^|;i. .^v* ; '-..;£ ;<V-*v^ ,■ Cau WorkWitHout^ tools." And 'that proverb applies^; here with remarkable" aptness. We have a handful of experienced/ willing and brave fire-firhters headed by an, expert, but the- are short of nearly everything that .cpes to make up a full equipment, one that would give them at least a fair /fighting chance with a big ccn flag-ration. They have not even enough horses to drag all their equipment, as has been remarked m these columns before on several occasions, .and as was painfully proved when m the case of Monday's destructive fire, Superintendent Hugo was compelled to- run his engines down m relays, ttiehorses having to be sent back more than once lor cir.pliances. that shpjivld have been standing read^ .horsed- "arid only awaitin'- a telephone call to the srerfe. :■ .-■ v :-v.v i * '*■ -:„,".:■? ■■-■ ■■ Tnat the Brigaide-iS shjort, also, of hotel and that' much of what it -is possessed of is old and rotten, was dreadfully demonstrated on Monday [mornn^, when Supt'. Kugp was un\able;to use the water of; the veryadfcaetnjfc harbor because ;h'e had not eyioußli hose to reach : it, and when several bad bursts delayed the attack c» t|ie fiery foe. The reflection is nyaddening and the civic .authorities should bide their diminished heads m sftame at such a fact becoming, pub'.ic m ruch a terrible mahnef. There is little doubt but that the lack of sufficient hose— a lack that could be remedied for a few pounds— cost the toss of the £-10,000 Bank of N.S.W., if noti of the Trocadero and the buildings jver the -way . Yet at the very last meeting of the City Council, on Thursiay week, the Mayor, Mr Hislop, nad the wicked folly and brazen audac ty, while .Fire, Brigade matters were under discussion, to speak sneeringly 'of those who tendered wise .1 counsels of caution and ureed speedy reform, and to say there was "altogether; too much hysteria" over this fire business and its possibilities. The answer to his flippant, folly came only tjoo soon, and only one circumstance] the fact that the Bank of N.S.Wi party-wall was fireproof, saved thei whole city of Wellington, from Feath^rstone-street out to the south and east, from destruction last Monday. Had the fire once passed/that obstruction, nothing could have saved Willis,, Boulcott and Manners-stteets, the first-named even quite out to the residential and church sections, and on .both sides. Short-handed, half-horsed, ill supplied with engines and appliances, and then so cruelly coincidently handicapped by a.- defective water sunpiv through accident, the Brigade would have been as helnless against such a mi.irhty area of flame as any team selected from a mother's meeting. ♦ • • Months ago, Superintendent Hugo's urgent appeal for an assistant and more men was answered by the Council with a promise that he .should have them. The assistant was advertised for and then, cwvarently. the whole subject was forgotten. ''Truth" animadverted

on the delay, several times, and on October 18 the committee at length reported that a deputy-superin-tendent, had been appointed m the person o£ one W. S. O'Brien, who is at present m charge of a Melbourne suburban station. The steed is stolen, now the Council , will probably carefully lock the door ! Bxit there is little use m appointing a deputy if he has riot sufficient men to carry out his orders. It was patent at Wellington's first really big fire that the. Brigade, was woefully uhdermannned. They turned out to a man and acquitted themselves like men, "but reflect what a time the poor- fellow's went through between Monday morning's call at 3.36 and the last— the fifth that day— at midnight. It was enough to break down any but the strongest men, especially those who, after the long and heartbreaking fight on Lambton-quay, had to tackle the terrible climb to Brooklyn to the 3.30 p.m. fire. The Finance Committee of the Council have decided that "In view of the value of the site opposite the Town Hall and the meagreness of the building proposed to be erected thereon' for the extension of the Central Fire Station, and owing to the passing of the Fire Brigades Act, the Committee are of opinion that the whole question of proceeding with 'the erection of this> building should- be re/:;l ""-'^;-" . : ' : '' : ' That is perhaps not unwise, i.nd giantine this then let the money be expended on putting the fire-fighting plant on a full strength and up-to-date basis. Let the numerical strength of the Brigade be increased and the hands of its director be strengthened m every way. The disastrous fire of Monday has proved how bitter is the fate of the sluggishly unprepared, • • • There is another step the Council can and must take to minimise the danger of the destruction of the city by fire— a danger that is ever present under existing conditions, despite Mayor Hislop's supercilious cackle about hysteria— and that is m the direction of the compulsory removal of all tinder-dry wooden I shanties from the business streets. Present conditions must not be allowed to continue. The interests of greedy landlords . must not be permitted to strangle . reform. The path of progress must not be blocked by 'the rooting hog of callous capital. The architectural horrors, of Wellington::streets are a shame and a blot on the city. If only for the good name and fair fame of the capital of New Zealand, the hideous, pestilential and dangerous -wooden shacks must not be allowed any longer to disfigure whole streets of a modern city., In the cause of sanitation and to remove the imminent risk of appalling destruction by fire that they present, these . aritiouated. ugly, dirty, insanitary and inflammable ruins must so, and go quickly. The man who is content to continue to squeeze exorbitant rents out of struggling tenants for miserable wooden shops of the' vintage of 1850, instead of setting capital free, giving work to architects, builders, artisans and laborers by teariner down the tottering sheds and erecting modern buildings on their site, is no patriot, no loyal townsman, no good to God or man— and Wellington teems with him. Dwelling nouses at the rear of business premises are • a double menaceto health and safety from fire—yet there are scores of such m Wellington, hovels where the doctor's and the undertaker's 1 footsteps echo hollowly at terribly frequent intervals. The whole of Cuba-street, m particular, is. a fat feast for the lurking fire-fiend, from the Wesleyan •endowment estate (shameful rrrab of greedy shepherd of the Loard's flock and shamefull" sustained, as is notoriously all church property of any and every denomination or "jarring sect") at Manners-street corner right up to the boundary of the business zone. Behind all the crazy, creaking shops on that great business thoroughfare are packed and noked m holes and corners of their back yards, crazier, dwelling shacks that offer as fine an arena for the mad gallop of the redmaned ravager as does an Australian grass paddock at midsummer ; and he would cover it almost as fast ! If our city fathers doubt the truth of this Jet' them mount to the top of any high building m ,this locality and let their eyes roam over these nestilential back slums ; and if they do not then acknowledge the fearful ton-

jninence of the dans©r -,(as -well as the insanitary peril) then they ought tcj quit colvncillinK and take .the first ship abroad before the bereaved • and fir^-ruined citizens hang;, them to the bent and twisted lamp-posts. • • ' • ■ One word more on the lesson of the fire. If the Council, through its officials, was not aware that the Trocadero was architecturally (internally) unlit to be licensed as a lodging house, then its officers grossly neglected their duty. As a fact, had the fire started m that building instead of next door, not one- m every ten of its inmates could have escaped cremation. It was just like a huee, full matchbox and went just as fast when the flames touched it off. An inspection of the . r uins will show how the interior was of purely inflammable material, for - there is scarcely any debris. The corridors and stairs were of the narrowest. The walls between the cupboard-like cubicles were of the flimsiest lathe and plaster,' through which the slightest sound penetrated indecently, and these walls .offered not only no impediment to the onrush, of the fire but fed the flames like kindling wood. It was a de%th-trap and Wellington puerht to be thankful to Providence that it has gone m- the manner it did and without providing, a holocaust, a sacrifice to Mammon. Let the Council see to it that it is not rebuilt m like guise. How it ever came to pass inspection m course of erection is simply not to be understood, unless on sinister su?<*estion. There are others nearly as bad m Wellington and the indecency of scrim and paper and lathe and plaster walls between bedrooms where men and women and married couples and single men lie alternately is everywhere disgustingly, obtrusively apparent. Is the Building Act m Wellington a dead letter, or is there some foul Tammany business afoot ?