PLANTATION FIRES

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21384, 29 January 1935, Page 9

PLANTATION FIRES

DANGER OF CAMPING PARTIES PATROLS. OUT EVERY DAY "The fire at Brooklands, starting on Saturday afternoon, destroyed one of the first stands put in by the Selwyn Plantations Board. The wood was almost ready for milling, and nearly 50 acres were destroyed. The timbe.. will now have to be used for lirewood," said Mr R. Nairn at the meeting of the Selwyn Plantations Board held yesterday morning. Mr G. S. Ellis was in the chair. Mr Langdale Hunt brought up the subject of fire danger. He asked if tenants had no means of turning away holiday-makers and campers who used the board's plantations. When the lessees complained and remonstrated, they almost invariably met with the reply that the campers had the leave of the board. The superintendent, Mr R. G. Robinson, said that any permit given by him was always in writing. Lessees should always demand to see permits. The secretary, Mr C. W. Hervey, said that he had seen many persons coming brck along the Main North road on Sunday evenings. Their cars were followed by trailers stacked high with wood. Mr Robinson said that the board employed two motor-cyclists. Sunday was their main day. The men working on any of the properties had to be on their beats on Sundays. Thus their property was protected every day of the week. The weakness of the scheme lay in the plantations that were leased. It was in these that the fires were breaking out and the pilfering was being done. The chairman proposed that the secretary should look into the leases and examine the trespass clause, and should then advise the lessees. This was agreed to by the meeting. On the suggestion of the chairman, it was left to the finance and firewood committees to report, after inspecting the Brooklands fire, to the next meeting of the board. He said that there were many campers throughout the year. The honQrary ranger had done very good work there, but nobody knew how the fire had started. Two men had been seen shooting there not long before the fire had started. One member suggested jokingly that cigarette smoking should be stopped in the country during the dry season.

GRASS FIRES AND RELIEF WORKERS CITY SUPERINTENDENT'S CRITICISM The grass fire in Victoria Park on January 8 last and the inaction of relief workers from the Rapaki road construction work, were referred to by the Superintendent of City Reserves, Mr M. J. Barnett, in a special report presented to the Christchurch City Council at its meeting last night. Mr Barnett reported that approximately 11J acres of the council's plantation of three-year-old pine trees had been destroyed. After expressing his appreciation of the manner in which relief workers engaged by the council had worked to get the fire under control, Mr Barnett said: "In marked contrast to the service of these men was the attitude taken bv numbers of Uie relief work-

ers from the Rapaki road construction work. At the time of the outbreak dozens of these men passed alongside the fire, and with the exception of two elderly men, made no attempt whatsoever to assist with the. work." Work Paid For Mr Barnett challenged the argument raised by a relief worker that firebeating work was not justified on the ground of payment. He said that the City Council had always paid for the services of men at fires. This had been done after outbreaks at Bottle Lake. It was sometimes difficult, however, to ascertain the number of hours worked by volunteers, and men had been known to walk off quietly without leaving their names. But it was true that in the past, when relief workers had had their clothing burnt while fire-fighting on the council's behalf, orders had been given for new goods from reputable outfitting firms. After the last fire at Victoria Park £ls as had been paid out for fire-fighting, the bulk of this money going to relief workers. Mr Barnett was prepared to accept the statement of another man that most of the men employed on the Summit road were unaware that afire was raging, but this did not alter the fact that dozens of the men from Rapaki deliberately walked past the fire and made no attempt to help. "In criticising these men for their callous and indifferent attitude," Mr Barnett concluded, "it was certainly not my intention to cast any reflection on the relief workers as a whole. The reserves department's appreciation qf the excellent work rendered to it by relief workers has been placed on record from time to time."

SERIES OF OUTBREAKS AT ST. ANDREWS DAMAGE TO PLANTATION A series of grass fires, two of which threatened to assume serious proportions, occurred near St. Andrews on Saturday afternoon. The first outbreak was noticed at about 2 o'clock at the side of the railway track just near Mrs Galletly's home. Fanned by a north-west wind of gale force, this fire quickly spread into the plantation where it caught a large quantity of stacked firewood. A call for helpersi was sent out by the telephone exchange,' and in a few minutes a willing band of helpers were on hand. The heat from the burning firewood hampered the work of the fire-fighters. A chemical fire extinguisher was brought to play on the burning pile and although the high wind militated against the effective use of the machine, its use enabled the blaze to be later extinguished with water and sand. In this fire a fairly large area of grass and some 20 well grown pine and other trees were destroyed. At about 7 o'clock in the evening following the passing of another train another fire broke out in the plantation near Mr R. D. Smith's property. This blaze soon covered a large area and with dense volumes of smoke it was a spectacular sight. About 40 helpers were soon on the scene, and the fire was beaten out. The same train in its journey southwards ignited a further area just north of the Otaio bridge, but since this was in the river bed it was allowed to burn out.

The first performance in Germany of a practically unknown symphony in E major by Franz Schubert was held in Baden-Baden on December 17. The original manuscript of this symphony is in the possession of the Royal College of Music is loodoa.