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Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 85, 9 January 1928, Page 12

It is some years since the sun developed such a’ dull red glow as it did the other day (says the "Auckland Star”). All the afternoon it appeared to be shining through smoke, but as it approached the horizon the obscurity increased so much that it was quite easy to look straight at the orb of day with the naked eye. For the last quarter of an hour before disappearing behind the Waitakere Ranges the sun assumed a coppery red colour. Until about 15 or 20 years ago this phenomenon was quite a common occurrence in the late autumn each year, when bush clearings were being burned, but there have been none of any magnitude in recent years, and in any case no farmer would burn bis bush clearing during the first week in January, as it is too early to plant grass with any assurance of success. A few years ago a similar phenomenon was attributed to bush fires in Australia, as there wore none in New Zealand at the time, and it may be that during the next few days the reports from steamers traversing the Tasman Sea will indicate wljethor there is any likelihood that during the recent westerly weather the smoke has come across from bush fires that were raging in Victoria. Nothing like them has over taken place in New Zealand, one area alone being given as about 150 square miles, so that there seems to bo just the bare possibility that the smoke from this gigantic, fire may have travelled the intervening 1200, milea.