BUSH FIRES IN SOUTHLAND

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27874, 24 January 1956, Page 14

BUSH FIRES IN SOUTHLAND

3700 ACRES BURNT

LITTLE MILL TIMBER DESTROYED

(New Zealand Press Association) INVERCARGILL, Jan. 23.

Bush and forest fires in the Kokonui district on Saturday are estimated to have burnt 3700 acres of mainly pri-vately-owned bush, but little millable timber was destroyed. The State Forest land affected was 207 acres, but trees in this area were valued chiefly for their soil conservation worth and not for their timber. Rain falling in many parts of the province on Sunday and today averted further big outbreaks. All the fires in the province have been brought temporarily under control, but hundreds of acres of bush, tussock, and scrub land and peat have been left smouldering. blackened wastes. Mr R. W. G. Janson, assistant conservator of .forests in Nelson, who has just begun duties as relieving conservator of forests in Southland, said today that many fires in the province had started as clearing operations. Mr Janson said he could see from the air how bush and forest fires had been caused by indiscriminate burning off close to the fringes. “Some areas, such as Nelson, Marlborough and Canterbury, are so accustomed to dry conditions that their local bodies are now more fire conscious than are Southland's,” said Mr Janson. Another Forest Service official said

that the fire danger warnings, which had been broadcast for about two weeks, had not stopped settlers from carrying out burning off operations, although to do so was extremely hazardous.