THE BUSH FIRES RELIEF FUND.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 9941, 21 January 1898, Page 4

THE BUSH FIRES RELIEF FUND.

We have baen asked whether our relief fund is intended for the burnedout Oxford settlers alone, or whether the Birch Hill sufferers are to be also included. Our intention in opening the list was that ie should ba for the relief of the sufferers both at Birch Hill and Oxford. There is a very general feeling that the mill hands a

Birch Hill, who showed great selfsacrifice in helping others while their own possessions were burning, should not b<_» left out of sight in the relief measures now being taken. We shall therefore assume, unless it is intimated otherwise by the subscribers, that the donations we receive are intended for the relief of deserving cases both at Oxford and Birch Hill. Mr. D. Buddo, in a letter which we published yesterday, suggested that the Oxford Relief Committee should add the Birch Hill sufferers to their list, and also strengthen their Committee by putting on other names. This seems a very good suggestion, which we hope will be acted upon. Meanwhile it is gratifying to note that help is coming forward at a generous rate. In point of fact we have never yet appealed to the benevolence of our readers in a good cause without meeting with a most prompt and liberal response, and we have little doubt that, with the other agencies on foot, a substantial sum will be raised for the relief of the sufferers by the disastrous bush fires. It is emphatically a case, however, in which promptitude makes the aid given doubly welcome and valuable, and we hope therefore to see our list of subscribers swell rapidly during the next few days.