FIRE-WATCHING ORDER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25069, 10 November 1942, Page 2

FIRE-WATCHING ORDER

The business community and the public as a whole are entitled to expect that reasons will be given for the sudden decision of the Minister of Civil Defence, Mr D. Wilson, which requires the introduction of continuous fire-watching services in Dunedin. When he commented a few days ago on the Minister’s instruction in its application to Christchurch the Mayor and chief warden of that city, Mr«E. H. Andrews, said that it would have been better—“more efficient and more decent to all our workers”—if the Minister had postponed the making of an order until he had discussed the position with the local organisation. “He might then have considered it due to us,” Mr Andrews added,to explain why the Government at this stage considers the matter more urgent than during past months.” That criticism applies with equal force to this city. The Minister is expected to be in Dunedin towards the end of this week, when he will meet members of the Mayor’s Emergency Precautions Executive. It is reasonable to suppose that questions will be asked concerning the need for the permanent establishment at this particular time of a system of fire-watching that has had no more than trial application in the past, and that the Minister will endeavour to answer them. But a public in possession of the facts, or at least of a broad outline of the conditions which have, in the Government’s view, made continuous fire-watching desirable, would be in better mood to react helpfully to the decision than it can possibly be at the moment. All that has been stated with reference to the unexpected instruction to put fire-watch-ing into immediate operation is that the Minister, or the War Cabinet, has acted upon advice contained in a report submitted by a British expert who is at present on loan to the New Zealand Government. That report, according to the Minister, received preliminary consideration by the War Cabinet and was then referred to a special committee for comment on the “general practicability ” of the proposals contained in it, with,-it seems, special reference to “ their bearing on the organisation already developed for emergency purposes.” In these circumstances it appears extraordinary that the decision to establish continuous watching services should precede any announcement to the Government of the investigating committee’s findings. The impression left in the public mind by the adoption of this erratic procedure is likely to be that the war situation in the Pacific has lately undergone serious deterioration; at the very least that the danger of attack to which the Dominion is exposed is greater now than it has r been in the past. If this is the case the public has a right to know more about the reasons behind the Minister’s instruction than it knows now—which is virtually nothing at all. The Mayor of Christchurch has said that in his district the order will be obeyed. Naturally it must be, in Dunedin as in Christchurch. But Mr Andrews has also indicated bluntly that in his judgment the instruction is “ arbitrary, irksome, and unnecessary.” Mr Wilson must expect to encounter similar objections in this centre. Presumably he is in a position to answer them; but it would have been more sensible and a good deal more practical if the instruction to install the fire patrols had been accompanied by an explanation of the necessity for it.