AUTOMATIC FIRE ALARMS

Southland Times, Issue 24755, 28 May 1942, Page 5

AUTOMATIC FIRE ALARMS

BRIGADE TO TEST SYSTEMS

A motion passed by the Invercargill Fire Board to give three months’ notice to property owners that the brigade would discontinue the work of testing private automatic fire alarms was rescinded at a meeting of the board yesterday. The board decided that the brigade undertake the testing and supervision, but not the maintenance, of automatic alarms, under an agreement similar to that of the Dunedin Fire Board and at the same charge. When the motion to rescind the previous resolution, notice of which had been given by Mr A. Sharp, came up for consideration, Mr D. Harris said that as a member of the board he wished to take strong exception to the fact that two members of the Underwriters’ Association had interviewed him and told him that they expected him to vote in favour of rescinding the motion. He was quite capable of making up his own mind. “I quite agree,” Mr Harris added, “that the representatives of the underwriters should have met Mr Sharp and Mr Warwick, who represent the insurance companies on the board, but as a Government representative I take strong exception to the fact that they tried to tell me how to vote. I do not attach any blame to Mr Sharp or Mr Warwick.”

The chairman (Mr W. G. Tait): The representatives of the Underwriters’ Association approached me, but not in the way in which Mr Harris says they approached him. They merely asked me to bring their representations before the board, but they did not ask me to vote one way or the other. Mr R. T. Parsons: They did not tell me how to vote. If they had I would have told them where the door was. They said they would like the board to reconsider the motion, and that if th'e board could find its way to rescind the motion it would be a big help. Mr Harris: They told me to do the right thing. Mr Tait: That is not telling you how to vote.

Mr Harris: Oh yes, it is. Mr Sharp said he was sorry to hear that the underwriters’ representatives had led Mr Harris to believe that they were trying to tell him how to vote. If that were the case, then he did not support the action of the representatives of the underwriters.

In reply to a question the superintendent, Mr J. Philp, said he did not see any objection to the brigade testing the alarms under an agreement similar to that in use in Dunedin.