WATTLE PLANTATIONS

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19213, 20 January 1928, Page 10

WATTLE PLANTATIONS

EXTENSIVE DAMAGE BY FIRE. [THE PRESS Special Service.] AUCKLAND, January 19. Extensive damage was caused through an outbreak of firo late on Wednesday afternoon on a large wattle tree plantation controlled by the Taupiri Coal Mines, Ltd., on the Eangiriri Hills, near Mercer. It is believed that the fire was caused through the falling of a spark from a passing engine into a patch of dry scrub near the railway line. The flames spread with remarkable rapidity, and before they could be checked they were swept by a strong south-easterly wind to an adjoining plantation owned by the Pukemiro Collieries, Ltd. It was not until late this afternoon that the fire showed signs of subsiding, but by that time about 350 acres on the two properties had been burned.

Two plantations, each of about 500 acres in area, are maintained by the respective companies in order to provide a supply of pit props for their mines. It is as yet difficult to estimate exactly what area has been burned, although it is believed that about 250 acres were destroyed on the Taupiri Company's property and about 80 acres on that of the Pukemiro Company. The damage is estimated at several thousand pounds, that on the Pukemiro plantation alone being about £3OOO. Much of the work carried out on plantations during the past two years will have to be repeated.