H—l2

AGREEMENTS BETWEEN URBAN FIRE AUTHORITIES AND VOLUNTEER BRIGADES 16. Section 42 of the Act provides a definition of a volunteer brigade as distinct from permanent or part-time staff employed by an Authority in the ordinary relationship of master and servant under section 40. The distinction is that the members of the. brigade are engaged by virtue of an agreement with the brigade as a whole and are not employed under individual contract of service, and that the brigade is registered as a volunteer brigade. Section 41 provides for this registration and requires that the Council shall approve the agreement for service between the brigade and the Urban Fire Authority. The fire service in the country districts depends in the main on the volunteer brigadesmen, and the procedure laid down in these sections is designed to determine the position of the volunteers under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, 1925. 17. In order to simplify the procedure the Council prepared a model agreement for service adaptable to most volunteer brigade conditions and also a model set of brigade rules. One clause of the agreement incorporated the brigade rules and made provision for any amendment considered desirable to meet the circumstances of a particular case. The model agreement and rules were considered and approved at the annual conference of the United Fire Brigades' Association, and copies have been circulated both to the Authorities and the brigades. ESTIMATES OF EXPENDITURE 18. It will be evident from the foregoing that during the period strictly covered by this report the Council has been mainly concerned with the, arrangements necessary to bring the Act into operation in the next financial year. This report would be of academic interest only unless some reference is made to the estimates of expenditure and the arrangements for collection of revenue for the year 1950-51. It is therefore proposed to follow the precedent set in the reports of the fire brigades of the Dominion made under the Fire Brigades Act, 1926, and to include in the attached statistical tables particulars of the estimates which were approved during the first quarter of 1950-51. 19. In the attached tables the districts have for convenience been kept in the same sequence as the Schedules to the Act. The total estimated cost of the fire service for the year is £589,583. This is divided between the contributors as set out in the following table. The returns of premium income received from insurance companies and other contributors under section 52 of the Act, together with that from the State Advances Office which makes a voluntary contribution in respect of State housing, totalled £3,383,119. The insurance contribution to the fire service therefore represents 8-33 per cent, of the total premium income received.

Table I — Allocation Between Contributors of Cost of Service for the Year 1950-51

6

— Total. Government. "Underwriters. Local Authorities. Fire Boards New fire districts Secondary fire districts Council £ 492,502 37,065 23,216 36,800 £ 49,250 3,706 1,920 29,479 £ 246,251 18,533 9,599 7,321 £ 197,001 14,826 11,697 589,583 84,355 281,704 223,524 Percentage of total cost 14-3 47-8 37-9