SPARKS FROM RAILWAY ENGINES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16545, 27 September 1924, Page 13

SPARKS FROM RAILWAY ENGINES

LIABILITY FOB; FIRE LOSSES.

WELLINGTON, last night.

At their annual conference the delegates to the Mew Zealand Farmers’ Union passed a resolution : “That where it can bo proved that the Railway Department is responsible for an outbreak of fire they .should he held liable for the damage.” The Minister of Railways has replied: “The Department is fully seized of the desirability of using eyery endeavor to minimise the danger of fire arising from the use of locomotives and it accordingly takes every caro to eliminate the danger by provision on its engines of the best spark arresting appliances available, and as far as circumstances permit by burning oniy such classes of coal as do not tend to emit sparks. The fact that during hot weather fires occur at many places remote from the railway shows that fires commence through other causes than sparks from locomotives, and there is little doubt that many of the fires which settlers are apt to ascribe to sparks from railway engines are caused in other ways. The Department also co-operates in the prevention of fires by burning off inflammable material on railway land alongside the line at suitable times, and will continue to use its best endeavors to prevent the spread of any fires that may accidentally he caused. The Department has never at any time repudiated liability for damage resultant from an outbreak of fire when the Department has been in any way at fault, Imt obviously it cannot accept the position that because a fire occurs in proximity to its lines the Department should, ipso facto, he rcsponsihel for any damage which gnay arise therefrom in the absence of any negligence on its part.”