ENORMOUS DAMAGE IN THE SOUTH.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 14, 18 January 1898, Page 5

ENORMOUS DAMAGE IN THE SOUTH.

#BEWEF- FUNDS STARTED'

WELCOME RAINFALL.

nAN GEROUS FIRES IN CANTERP BURY AND NELSON.

(By T Megraph"Prf! S Association'>

PAHIATUA, Monday.

n«a began, this afternoon, and it looks \tn will continue. ■»rfliS fund has been started here «£ SI to the settlers is enormous, and Tbei!^ are practically ruined. K dr IsTewart, Maequarrie, and Ayr--I^Scarborough, are the latest victims. are known to amount to /TrtS in-the Alliance, Northern Mew ®>T a Victorian, National, Phoenix, Zfcomm S Union. The largest ani,nt fa the Hunna Creamery, £400. 0 u louses were insured, but the par0th KrJ are no available. Unfortunately tICUS'Snv- are uninsured, and a great yiioTof the property destroyed was not insurable.

FEILDING, Monday, nm-in" Friday and Saturday -last the JKmead- through the Kiwitea and San'ma counties, doing great damage Sal houses were destroyed and miles of Sand thousands of acres ot grass were £5 Thousands of sheep were also deWd- The extent of the damage is not £ known, as the fires have not yet burned Smselves out. Many settlers are almost rained

MASTERTON, Monday. The fire on the East Coast proves to have been terrific, and--the loss is extremely Ks Several small settlers have been tripped of everything. Pennell Bros, lost ; their bush and sawn timber, but saved Lr milk One thousand acres of grass L e burned at Bunny's Tripos station. TKf loss of stock is unknown. A party or 10- two men and the rest women and children, had a fearful time in fleeing to the sea coast. WELLINGTON, Monday. Telegraphic communication with Wairiirapa Dwhich was interrupted since Friday owing to bush fires and gales, was restored to-day. The Railway Dei)artment expect to resume through traffic on the Wellington-ffairarapa-Napier line, at present interrupted by the damage done by the hush fires to the railway bridge at Mauric.eville, hy Wednesday morning. / •At Dannevirke, the Piripin sawmill, owned by Arthur Robert Holt, of Napier, by fire on Saturday night. Tlie adjacent cottages and their contents were also destroyed. Alar"c number of sheep were burned, m this district. The losses of the Mangatora Estate are estimated at 4,000 sheep and 10 cattle. Light showers fell through tbe day and heavy rain in the evening, which will extiu«nisli the fires round Wellington. The rain comes too late, however, to' save the fruit crops, or even in some cases the fruit trees themselves.

TIMARU, Monday. The township of Geraldine was in some danger yesterday afternoon from a lire -sykich sprang up in the remnants of the teh the previous day. On Saturday Mrs Angus Macdonald's homestead was visited by the fire. The outbuildings were saved with difficulty, but the orchard, plantations, aijd: grass paddocks were burned. Weraaya'strong nor'-wester carried the k towards Geraldine, and had just reached the piece of preserved bush close to tit! tflfa when the wind changed. Tbe ire engines of Temuka and Timaru were sent for as necessary to save tbe buildings iftlie bush caught. The rain has set in this morning, and all danger is probably over. All handjyvere busy yesterday fighting the flames' on the hill with buckets'of water carted up on drays. A nice steady rain fell this, morning.

STRATFORD, Monday. All last week was devoted to fighting the tosh fires in the district. The fire brigade rat out to Crown and Co.'s, three miles way, and after 16 hours' work succeeded in saving the mill and surrounding Imild-

At Cardiff Mr J. Belcher's house was burned, with a number of sheds and stacks, also grass and fencing. At Toko, Kennedy and Co.'s large mill, with 80,000 feet of timber, was totally destroyed, and the township only saved with jpfculty. The fire gotinto the domain at Stratford, and swept clean througli the beautiful piece of native bush, threatening tbe whole town. In the absence of the "brigade at Hrown's mill a bucket, brigade was formed, Mich held the fire in check, though several Ipses were temporarily abandoned. The whole of the grass over nearly 30 miles of country has been destroyed," and c town is full of men out of work' through tlie hres.

Kain is now falling, and the danger is over. ° • n

lJi' eaiea )Urneu *s mud' larger than in "66, but the people were in most cases Prepared, the long spell of dry weather «ing the fires' a certainty.