CO129-168 - Sir Kennedy - 1874 [9-12] — Page 366

IT

aid, if it should prove requisite-

6

To ring the Fire Bell at the

Central Police Barracks seemed under

the circumstances useless. It was not required, for the reasons above given, to turn out the Police reserve at that Station. Neither was it probable that it would be useful to

eful to anyone residing outside the Station, inasmuch as the noise of the wind, and that caused by the crashing of portions of houses, and trees, was so loud, that the sound of the bell could only have travelled a very short distance, whilst

house in the Colony might._ reasonably be supposed to be so closely barred that the sound would not

every

362

penetrate. Lastly the signal of alarm

would have been so

vaque

as to have

been in itself useless. The tolling of the bell would have applied equally

to

"any portion of the City between the Harbor Master's Office West and the Murray Barracks, East- and between the Harbor North and Albany South. Qwing

to the intense darkness of the

night and the extreme violence of the weather there were none of those. adventitious aids to the discovery of the

scene of a Fire such as are af

a glare

M

afforded by

the sky or by the quickly

circulating rumours from the public in the Streets.

2-

As a matter of practice the