387
a
pay, I should hesitate to recommend it. There is, however,
growing disinclination among the Police to accept service
with the Brigade at the present rate of pay, and the Captain
Superintendent of Police has recently found it impossible to
induce men to volunteer for the vacancies. At present there
are only 27 European Members of the Brigade, whereas the full
strength is 36. I consider that it would be most undesirable
to seek recruits for the Fire Brigade elsewhere than in the
Police Force, and I therefore recommend that Mr. Badeley's
scheme, which will obviate the necessity of making any such
radical change in the constitution of the Brigade, be adopted,
and that it may be allowed to come into force at the beginning
of next year.
4.
I may add that if the existing system of
recruiting the Fire Brigade were abandoned, its necessary
reorganization on a new basis would certainly cost the Govern-
ment more than the present system costs, even if a much higher
scale than that now submitted were to be adopted.
5.
I have not inserted the new scale in the
Draft Estimates for 1903, but if the proposal meets with your
approval a special vote for the mount can be taken next year.
I have the honour to be,
sir,
Your most obedient
Humble servant,
n.y. Gascoigne
Major-General,
Administering the Government.
my. D
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