AN EFFETE FIRE BRIGADE.

NZ Truth, Issue 116, 7 September 1907, Page 6

AN EFFETE FIRE BRIGADE.

The fir-ebell is clanging with' great visor at Christchurch and Dunedin ; —clanging m opposition. Dunedin says tho. 'City of the Plains and' shingle only runs a 'Dark-town Fire Brigade, and the retaliatory re- i marks -arc -.not -of a complimentary!; character. But Dunedin, or its boss < speaker an the helmet brigade, has-' n't put the case too strong ; Christ? : church. : r possesses one of the cronkest: 1 fire shows m the colony. It wants ' reorganising, and '-the hose of cold water 'plunked on to ?i-s old and disreputable ideas, and o. .vigorous fire of 'denunciation showed on to everything about ' -the whole laughable, though costly, concern. When the bell rings ie -daylight the efforts of 1 the Corporation horses— fearsome tilings that should be kept at their own game — to reach the fire-station is one of the genuine sights of the city. By, the time these mokes get from one end of the town to the other they ''are dead beat, and cannot raise even a decent trot. It is really ; creulty to animals. By the time the gear is got to tlie flames the latter have either spread mightily, or, someone has put the "blaze out -by; spitting on it, or there is

. (NO FIRE 'AT ALL, and the mokes are dragged back to work -again. First-class nags, specially trained, always ready for action, should always be kept, no matter what they darned well cost., Because there may be a devil of a fire m Christchurch one of these days or nights, or both, and there may be different "outbreaks at the same tone, and then Christohurch people twill know what parsimony Costs. It is true that there is a chemical engine, and it sometimes dees good work, but tell it not to the town- publish it not at the Port, Superintendent Smith always wants his pet chemical at the scene first, and It is whiskered that if the other engine or gear got there before it somebody will be fined. Alsoj more men should be on duty, and a better system of training established at the various stations m the city. The reason that the brigade has shown up fairfcy well so far is that it has had little really hard-down work to do- Wi.cn it has that to perform the . real , merits of the Christchurch

Darktown Fire Museum will be tested.