The price of a Land Rover

The price changed as the search for a vehicle dragged on. In its letter of 12 December 1970, the brigade recalled an agreement made on 2 December 1969: it would share the cost of a used Land Rover dollar-for-dollar, up to a brigade contribution of $350, on advice that a suitable vehicle might cost $700. This earlier agreement is described in the surviving 1970 letter; the 1969 letter itself is not reproduced here.

By August 1970, secretary Norm Bent’s two-page letter expressed deep frustration. The brigade said it had raised money from residents and still had neither the second vehicle nor its radio. It proposed that Council provide $400 and allow the brigade to find a suitable vehicle at auction. The same letter criticised equipment provision more generally, recounting spending and initiatives which the writer believed Council had been slow to support.

Council’s two-page reply of 16 September defended its record. It reaffirmed a fifty-fifty cost arrangement but insisted that Council would select the vehicle, possibly in a higher price bracket. It said radios could not be ordered until a vehicle was in service, and rejected the brigade’s criticism as unwarranted. These are the parties’ competing claims, preserved together rather than treated as an agreed account.

Council purchased a 1967 long-wheelbase Land Rover for $1,350 on 27 October 1970. In December it advised that the vehicle was being checked and painted, and requested $784.50 from the brigade as half the cost. The purchase figure and requested contribution belong to different stages of the correspondence; they should not be substituted for one another.

President R.J. Jennings replied on 12 December that the requested share was more than double the original $350 budget. The residents’ appeal had raised $712.35. The brigade offered that entire amount in full settlement, giving up a hoped-for surplus for additional equipment. It also expressly thanked Council for providing a 100-gallon tank, pump, hoses and radio mounting at no cost to the brigade.

A receipt on the scan records the $712.35 payment on 15 December 1970. The HTML chronology separately records Council’s acceptance of that contribution on 17 March 1971. The difference between the requested share and the accepted payment was $72.15. The dates distinguish a cheque offered and received from the later recorded agreement to accept it.