In the News
Apart from the prospect of what they had gathered to accomplish, those 12 men who had accepted the invitation to help establish Fire Police no doubt that evening talked over the two Fire Brigade-related events of the day:

• Local fire-fighter Russell Preston was recovering in hospital from injuries suffered while tackling a blaze in a bedding factory in Greys Avenue. He donned a smoke helmet to make an inspection of the interior, disappeared into thick black smoke in the blazing building but didn't emerge as expected. He had fallen from a platform. A difficult rescue by his colleagues followed and, unconscious, Preston was carried out of the premises and taken to Auckland Hospital. (He quickly made a full recovery. Preston starred in the rescue of 14 persons at the 1941 John Burns fire in Customs Street and later became Chief Fire Officer on the North Shore)

• The death was announced of the former Dominion Inspector of Fire Brigades, Thomas Trevanion Hugo, aged 73. (He had earlier regularly reviewed the Auckland Brigade and in 1909 gave it a shake-up saying “improvements have certainly not kept pace with the rapid growth of fire risks in the City of Auckland during the last few years”)

The new ferro-cement bridge across the Waikato River at Tuakau was officially opened to traffic on this day, a high-sided two-lane structure connecting Tuakau with Port Waikato, Pukekawa and Onewhero districts, replacing a one-way wooden structure and, for heavy vehicles, a punt and barge. (The ferro-cement bridge is still in use today)

Word from the Himalayas in overnight Press wires advised that the British Expedition attempting to conquer Mt Everest had given up because of risk of avalanche.
(It was to be another 20 years, and then the Kiwi of the team was first to make it to the top)

The Depression
Auckland, like the whole country (and the world) was in the grips of depression:

• The Auckland Boys’ Employment Committee was begging for opportunities for work for minors, having found jobs for 53 youths outside the city.

• Auckland City Council on this day approved a loan enabling 121,000 pounds worth of new works, mostly roading, thus providing more worthwhile jobs for the unemployed.

• Pupils of Seddon Memorial Technical College (then in Wellesley Street) collected foodstuffs, which had been handed over today to the local Relief Committee: hundreds of hampers included fresh vegetables, fruit, sauces and baking materials for distribution to the unemployed/needy.

• Auckland City Council, troubled by so many protest activities resulting from the Depression and not wanting a repeat of the violent, bloody riots in Queen Street the year before, announced a new policy at its meeting this afternoon – every street parade, procession or meeting held in a public place would require a licence from the Council, which will liaise with police before granting licences.

In the Shops
Most retailers were having sales at this time to try to quit stock in the depressed economy:

• Farmers’ stores, in a time when there wasn’t much money about, tried to accelerate uptake of the new craze - listening to the local radio stations – by advertising Brunswick  Radios, 7-valve, super-hetrodyne, all-electric models (including aerial equipment, but not a mast) for 4 shillings and ninepence a week, payments spread over 2 years.

• Best buy for new Fire Policemen wanting gumboots was at Waitemata Trading Co in Hobson Street. For 15 shillings and sixpence they could choose from white or crepe cleated soles.

• And to get to the fires, in the unlikely event members of the fledgling Unit could afford one, Dominion Motors had just received a shipment of the last gasp in English-made cars, the Morris Ten Saloon, selling at 322 pounds. (In later years former OIC of the Unit, Dick Reid, used to go to fires in his Morris 8, the family car he bought second-hand which he owned for years)

• Shopkeepers, and customers, were asking why the price of wheat and flour (and therefore the staple, bread) remained so high, given the surplus supplies in storage following a bumper harvest in Canterbury.

Today at the Movies
It’s said people found a few extra pence from somewhere to go to movies during the Depression, an escape into fantasy for an hour or two, temporarily forgetting their dire financial circumstances.

• At the St James theatre “Rasputin and the Mistress” was showing at 11am, 2.15 and 8pm, starring John Barrymore as “the Devil who posed as a God”.

• While down at the Regent it was the last day of Al Jolson’s hit “Hallelujah, I’m a Tramp”, (in USA the title was “Hallelujah, I’m a Bum Again” but that could easily have been misunderstood in New Zealand!)

• Across at the National Cinema there was a title of intrigue, “They Just Had to Get Married”, billed a “spicy, speedy comedy.”

On the Fireground - The Motors
The older men present at the founding meeting might also have been intrigued by the variety of fire engines (motors, as they called them) they would be working alongside following the amalgamation in April of small Fire Boards with the Auckland Metropolitan Fire Board. The Halley Simonis, Kissel Kar and Morris Commercial appliances that the former fire-fighters had known so well had been joined by a range of other makes including a Cadillac, a Chandler, a Buick, a Ford T hose carrier, a Dennis pump and a couple more of late-model Halley Simonis machines.