CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1624, 4 March 1884, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

(TO THE EM'JVild

Sib, —Permit me to say a fow words ill reply to the charge of ingratitudo hurled at the' Fire Brigade - by our worthy Mayor. In the first placo I am sorry that Mr i.o\ves should have deomcd it necessary to take notice of so small a thing as the sentence in my letter referring t» the Council, and I venturo to predict that Mr Lowes will have a very warm time during his term ot office if he notices, in a similar manner, every little reflection cast upon the Council, The Brigade is not ungrateful, but, on the contrary, very thankful for any favors bestowed upon it, however small, and small enough in all conscience are the favors it has received from the Borough Council. During the time the Brigade has been' in existence the Council has paid six year's subsidies, amounting in all to £IOO, or.at the rate of Ll6 13s 4d a year, truly ft heavy charge this against the ratepayers' pockets for protection from fire during six years, and the 'Brigade ought, indeed, to be thankful for the liberality of the" City Fathers," How then has the Brigade been kept going 1 By contributions from the townspeople, and by the Fire Insurance Companies, wl&h. aforesaid donations havo been hardly enough earned by the Brigade saving property in which the companies were interested. Other Municipal Councils consider that it is one of their duties to provide protection from fire for the citizens lives and property—not so the. Mastevton Council, it considers either that it has no duty in this respect, or that the duty is performed when it grudgingly doles out a few paltrypounds, scarcely more than enough to pay the engine keeper's salary, I should not have written in this strain but for the uncalled for attack made upon me, and the curious reason given for it. We have long given up hope of anything like sufficient support from tho Council, knowing quite well that many of the councillors, liko Mr Lowes himself, live at considerable distances from the town, and these gentlemen, being of opinion that owing to distance the brigade can be of uo service to them resolutely oppose grants in aid of its funds but is it not hard for the Corporation to tell us that it has neglected to colled ',£550 of its rates and therefore it has no money to give us? Finally we ask Mr Lowe3 to let us alone; we have kept tho brigade in existence for nearly six years without his help, and we venture to think we can do in the future what we have done in the past. ; Yours, &c., : v Wm. M. Eastkope, , Hon