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...j The total number of calls in the combined fire districts —viz., 741—shows an increase of 7-1 over those of the previous year ; but this is entirely due to the huge number of false alarms received by the Auckland and Christchurch brigades, and out of the 217 false alarms received by these two brigades no less than 92 were maliciously given. There is a decrease in the number of actual fires thai occurred during the year —viz., 366 as against 378 for the year ending 30th June, 1910. A large reduction has taken place in the number of tires returned as due to incendiarism, unknown causes, and in unoccupied houses, as follows : — Incen- Unknown In Unoccupied diarism. Causes. Houses. 1909-10 .. .. .. .. .. ..30 189 19 1910-11 .. .. ..12 |94 15 Decrease .. .. .. .. ..18 95 I These large decreases are probably in a great measure due to more searching inquiry than litis been customary in the past being made by the Superintendents of the various brigades its to the origin of the fires. Although the actual fires number only twelve less than during the previous twelve months, there has been a very substantial reduction in the amount of the loss sustained of property covered by insurance, with a small increase in the case of tin insured property : — Insured. Uninsured. Total. £ £ £ 1909 Id .. 101,574 26,881 128,455 1910 ll .. .. 75,708 27,989 103,697 Decrease .. £25,866 Increase.. £1,108 Decretisc.. £24,758 The tire districts that have incurred the heaviest losses are Dunedin. £30,987, and Maori Hill. £18,747. The insurance loss throughout the Dominion for the yeai ending Hist Decern her. 1 9 Id. was £392,670, and compares as follows : — Insurance Losses. Year ending 31/12/09, £468,530. Average loss, six years ending 31 ll' 09, £-125,988 31/12/10, £392,670. „ for year ending 31/12/10, £392,670 Decrease .. £75,860. Decrease .. £33,318 Adding 33J per cent, to the insurance loss for the purpose of arriving tit the approximate lire waste for the year, makes comparison as follows : — Fire Waste. Year ending 31/12/09, £624,707. Average fire waste, six years ending 31/12/09, £567,984 31/12/10, £523,560. „ for year ending 31/12/10 .. .. £523,560 Decrease .. £101,147. Decrease .. £44,424 The total fire loss for the last seven years amounts to the large sunt of £3,931,464. The United States of America has been looked upon for ver} 7 many years past as having the heaviest fire loss of any country in the world. According to the New York Evening Post, 4th February, 1911, the record fire loss in Europe is held by Russia, with tin average of si.Mi. say 4s. Bd., per capita; tin average throughout Europe as a whole is 48 cents, say 25., per head of population. The insurance loss in the United States for the year ending 31st December, 1910, is returned as amounting to $146,326,406 at an exchange rate of §4.90, this is equivalent to £29,862,532. Arriving at the fire waste by ihe same process I have adopted for New Zealand — i.e., the addition of 33 J per cent, gives Ihe sum of £39,816.709. with a population approximating eighty millions : this is something under 10s. per capita. With the fire waste of the Dominion for the same year amounting to £523,560, and the population approximating one million, gives an average of over 10s. per capita; so* that on the foregoing line of deduction I Invery unenviable record of having the largest tire loss in the world is held by New Zealand, and this notwithstanding the very substantial decrease of £101,147 in the fire waste when compared with thai of the year ending 31st December, 1909. Although the question of this excessive loss has been prominently before the public several times during the last two or three years, very little of any importance has been done towards remedying the evil. Some few boroughs have amended their by laws in the direction of extending the brick-areas in the town-centres, and in some measure improving their building regulations from a fire-protection point of view, but none nave gone far enough, and there has been no general movement in this respect. One of the resolutions passed at the United Fire Brigades Con ference was that the Government should be asked to frame a set of model building regulations, and provide for their compulsory adoption by local governing bodies. An inference to be drawn from an analysis of the fire reports sent in from the various districts is that over or excessive insurance is still much in evidence, and the portion of an advertisement following, taken from a local paper recently, appears to be on the face of it a case in point: " Boardinghouse (the furniture is insured for £500) : Price for the lease and the whole of the furniture and effects, including upright grand piano, £220."