, 1867-07-30

WuUSe OuIH II Was w IiuS u UC1AS az uiRuL, huO
call out, "Take care of your fire and candle
be charitable to the poor, and pray for the
dead" So also from time to time Acts had
been passed with the view Of preventing and Of
extinguisbing fires. But still the great increase
in the number Of fires and their devastating
character showed that those legislative mea-
sures had not proved quite effective. For in
stance, in London alone the number Of fires has
increased from 6S1 in 1910 to l,487 in 1864,
or it had been more than doubled in "a years.
No doubt there had been an increase also in the
number of houses but the increase in fires had
been much greater than the increase in houses.
And though the fre-extinguishiDg arrange
ments were now much more efficient than they
were, and had been recently brought under the
control of the Metropolitan Board of Works,
they were still inadequate as compared with
those in some other cities. For instance, while
in London there was only one engine station for
every six square miles, there vas in Paris
l 18th, and in New York u for one square
mile in London theEe was only one fireman to
one square mile !; in Paris there were Ii fire.
men, and in New York ga 6remen to one square
mile In London there was only one fireman to
20, 900 inhabitants in Paris and New York
there was one to 1888 and 676 inhabitants re-
spectively in London there was only one fire
engine to three square miles; in Paris and New
York there were about ] 3 to each square mile.
He might state that he ga" these and other
figures very much on the authority of Mr..
Young, the author of Fires, Fire Engines and
Fire BrigadeS. But these arrangement in
London, however unfavourable they contrasted
with those of Paris and New York, would be
reekoned efficient and complete when compared
with the provisions against fire that were made
throughout the country generally for if we
excepted such towns as Liverpool, Manchester,
Edinburgh, Glasgow, &C., matters were in a
most unsatisfactory state. Where private Acts
had been obtained by which the municipal au-
thorities had been enabled to bring a sufficient
supply of water into the towns, to establish
efficient forces of fremen and engines, and to
take proper precautions in the erection of
houses, the results had been most satisfactory.
We had a striking instance Of that in Liverpool,
where, in the five years from 1888 to 1843, up
wards of three quarters of a million were lost in
warehouse risks. So serious were the losses to
the insurance companies that they we're obliged
to raise the mercantile rates of insurance
from IS. per cent. to 3Os. and 40s. per cent.
These rates were tantamount to excluding o
great deal of property from insurance. The
authorities, approaching the great danger to
which much valuable property in the town
was exposed from fire, obtained two Acts
of Parliament-the one to enable them to
introduce a large supply of water to extinguish
fires and water the streets only; the other, to
give them power to make it imperative on all
owners of warehouses TO erect and alter their
warehouses according to certain conditions and
restrictions. The effect of the carrying out of
the provisions Of these Acts was to cause the
rates of insurance to fall again to IS, per cent.
Now, he expected that one of the results of the
labours of this committee, if appointed, would
be the adoption in other parts of the kingdom
of measures which had proved so beneficial in
Liverpool. He might mention one other means
employed in America in connection with the ex-
tinguishing of fires, which might be adopted
with great advantage in our large cities. He
meant a telegraph system. In the principal
cities of America as many telegraph stations
were established in each district Of the cities as
were considered sufficient for the speedy acquir-
ing and transmission Of information. When a
fire occurred intimation was sent to the nearest
station, which communicated at once to the
central telegraph station, and it in turn trans.
mitted the news to the engine stations. It was