FIRE-" PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE."

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11301, 20 December 1898, Page 6

FIRE-" PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE."

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir—"Firo and water are good servants, but bad masters ! " This truism is an acknowledged fact; therefore, so be it. Now, in view of the recenVand deplorable truth ot the fire 'fiend's fatal attack on the Royal Oak Hotel, Wellington, I judge it high time that precautionary measures should at once bo taken to obviate, or entirely do away with, the chances of a similar occurrence in this city of Dunedin.- Here hotels exist galorenorth south, east, and.west. How many of these hotels possess adequate (or any).means of fire escape 1 Many of these hotel premises burn like tinder, and, in answer to the 'questions; where, how, shall i, or we, escape ? Echo answers where ? I say nothing concerning the Wellington disaster pro or con: all I know is it has occurred, and no mortal can recall the past, -Dunedin has no immunity from fire or fires.. We have had them before, and are quite liable to have them aqMn and.agam. ' Surely, some bodjvGbvernment, City Council,- corporation, or other sect or order—have power to demand the existence of a thoroughly adequate means of escape in casepf fire from every bedroom in every hotel keeping boarders or bird-pE-pas-kW visitors in Dunedin town and suburbs? Too Into !is a terrible form of speech: and, in justice to hotelkoepers, their , customers, and the public.at large, let the powers who possess control over these matters., be up •md dome," nnd,'from a humanitarian senso of honour and justice,' see to it now that ample means of escape are provided for any and every human being likely to be environed by smoke and flame. People, in answer to this, may talk of difficulty, expense, impossibility, ™tc, etc. What, is- difficulty V "Merely a. word .'signifying, the necessity for exertion-a bugbear to children and fools, an effective stimuli, to men."-I am^etc.,