Rubbish Fires

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31365, 10 May 1967, Page 18

Rubbish Fires

Sir, —Sunday is the only day that most people are free to enjoy their gardens and sunshine, and, I would add, air that is free from industrial smoke and unnecessary rubbish fires. My home commands an excellent view normally, but a few of my neighbours below me regularly bum their rubbish on Sundays, obliterating the view. The smoke spoils any enjoyment we usually expect on a day when we have the most time to rest and view the beauty of surrounding trees and distant mountains. The town clerk says there is no by-law prohibiting the lighting of fires on Sunday. I feel sure that a change in our by-laws would add considerably to the welfare of all the citizens of Christchurch and suburbs—the City Beautiful of which we all claim to be so proud.—Yours, etc.,

ALAN WAGNER. May 9, 1967.

Sir, —There would not be so many complaints of neighbours’ rubbish fires if people had some elementary knowledge of how to set up their steel drum incinerators so as to get a rapid bum-up of the contents. It is best to cut out the bottom of the drum and make a grating of pipes or iron rods, laying them an inch apart on the rough side of concrete blocks, say, two blocks high. Place the drum on this. Have the garden refuse reasonably dry and light up underneath with bunched paper. Result: good draught, heat, and the smoke rising quickly and away. Old pumice coppers are not very satisfactory as garden incinerators.—Yours, etc., TRY THIS. May 9, 1967.