FIRE CONTROL COMMITTEE

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23495, 25 November 1941, Page 3

FIRE CONTROL COMMITTEE

* SUPPORT GIVEN BY SELWYN PLANTATION BOARD Agreeing that the board would give its full support to the committee set up last month by a conference of local bodies at which methods of fire prevention were considered, the Selwyn Plantation Board, at a meeting yesterday, decided to make a grant of £lO towards the committee’s preliminary expenses. A grant of £5 was asked for, but after a discussion in which several members stressed the board’s vital interest in all fire fighting work it was decided to increase this amount. By making the increased subscription, the board would give proof of support more in proportion to its substantial interests, said Mr E. A. Cooney (superintendent). The scheme that was being developed would be most valuable to the board. Expenses were hardly likely to increase once the organisation of the scheme was perfected. The plantation board had its own equipment, and needed only a few more tools. Two chemical fire extinguishers had been ordered, but this was the only expenditure in which it was at present involved. A recommendation that Right’s reserve, on Steel’s road, the next plantation scheduled for cutting, should be put up for tender, was adopted. A report by Mr Cooney stated that the plantation was planted in pinus insignia in 1900. Fire destroyed a fair portion of it a few years later, and in 1929 the area was filled up with Oregon trees. Wind had caused some damage in the last 10 years, and any delay in the exploitation of the stand would jeopardise the success of the oregon. It was inevitable that many of these trees would be injured or destroyed in removing the pines. Indications were that the volume of timber obtainable would be less than 1,500,000 super feet.