THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 1907. THE PIRE BOARDS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13945, 3 July 1907, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 1907. THE PIRE BOARDS.

Among the legislation which must be passed this session, whatever else may be dropped, is the Hill prepai ! by the Attorney-general for the amenUanent of the Fire lirigades Act of last year. This measuro is probably as defective as any enactment which the Parliament has passed in the course of its history. At tii<? present time various' l;:re Boards, called into being under its provisions, are in existence in the colony, but tho ■Legislature, while impressed witli the idea that it was desirable tp make better provision for the protection of life and property from fire by securing that the maintenance of lire brigades should be placed under the control of these authorities, iailed to recognise that i'lre Boards are like private individuals and like other corporations in tho respect that taey aro poweriess unless they have the command of funds. While the • Fire Boards were constituted in the month of June, the hrst payments to be made to them by the institutions that are required to contribute towards their support are not clue until the last day ot (September. Moreover, tho Boards nave not been granted tho power to raise money by way of loan. Consequently, they have been driven at tho present time to tho employment of various and curious expedients in order that they may provide themselves with the liuancial resources that are indispensable to them. The cure of the aatect in tho original Act that has hi ought this pass about must necessarily form the subject ot legislation this session. There are, however, numerous anomalies of less moment in the measure of which the Fire Boards, in, the short experience they luive had of its operation, have already become conscious. It may bo hoped, also, since an amending Bill is to be passed, that, the Attorney-general will consider the desirability of not merely repairing the ilaws in the draftsmanship of the original Acb but even of altering in some particulars the character of the law. The soundness of the view which was expressed by us when the proposals of tho (Government for the establishment of Fire Boards were beforo Parliament—namely, that it' would be a great mistake to multiply these bodies throughout- the colony—has been amply confirmed by subsequent events. , It must now be evident that tho encouragement which the Act offers to small boroughs to form themselves into fire districts is distinctly foolish. This may he sufficiently illustrated by - reference to the case of two or three boroughs in Otago. The ratepayers of tho boroughs in question have, by the votes of an insignificant minority of their numbor who chose to exercise their privilege at the statutory polls, secured the declaration of the municipal areas as firo districts under the Act. There is, for instance, the town of Alexandra. The annual rateable value of the property in this borough is about £7400. Since the maximum amount of the separate rate which a. Borough Council may levy iu order to provide for the payment of its contribution to the Firo Board is a penny in the pound, the proceeds of such a rate iu Alexandra would be £37; and though tho clause dealing with the matter is ambiguously worded, the infantion of the Act was probably to limit tlie contributions by boroughs to amounts equal to the product of such a rate. As the contribution from the insurance companies is tho same as> that from the local governing body, .the income of the Fire Board in Alexandra would, on the basis we have mentioned, amount to £74, pins such contribution as would be receivable from the Government in respect of its property in the' district—quite a trifling sum in such- a case as that now in point. But if provision is to bo made in the amending Bill, as presumably it will be, for the payment by Fire Boards of the expenses of their members when engaged on the business of the Boards, nearly the whole of the income of the Board in Alexandra will be absorbed in the payment of tho expenses of three representatives of the insurance companies in Dunedin incurred in their attendance at the four statutory meetings of the Board that must be held in the course of a year. Again, in Lawrence and in Milton, although the income of tho Boards ■ will' he greater than in Alexandra, since the anuual rateable value of the property in each of these boroughs exceeds £8000, and although the charges for travelling expenses will be less heavy, it will be apparent that the Boards will from the first be crippled for the want of funds to enable them satisfactorily to carry on their operations. The fact would seem to be that the Act has made the creation of fire districts much too simple a matter in small areas where the administrative expenses will swallow up an altogether disproportionate amount of the income of the Boards. Even iu the case of boroughs of largo the facilities afforded by the Act for the establishment of fire districts are probably much too great. It is, for example, rather ludicrous that in l'almerston North, a town with a population of over 10,000, the votes of 55 ratepayers, of whom six were opposed to tho proposal, should be sufficient to move the Governor-in-Council to the proclamation of the borough as a fire district. It would have certainly tended towards economy in admi istration, and perhaps not have been inimical to efficiency, if the Government had followed more closely than it did the lines upon which the Victorian measure is framed with reference to the constitution of fire districts. A metropolitan fire district and, nine country fire districts represent the subdivision of Victoria under the Act of 1890, upon ' which the New Zealand enactment is largely based, and the administration of the Act is left in tho Jiands of a Metropolitan Fire Brigades' Board and one Country Fire Brigades' Board, provision being made for the existence of local committees under the supervision of the Country Board. In New Zealand the geographical conditions render necessary a more minute subdivision than obtains in Victoria, but it should be evident that such a multiplication of Fire Boards as is rendered possible under the Act would be farcical,