BUSH- FIRES CHECKED.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 26, 31 January 1908, Page 8

BUSH- FIRES CHECKED.

DUNEDIN, 30th January. About 300 acres of bush were destroyed by tho fires at Waipori. It was at first feared that the corporation's sawmill had been destroyed, but it has been found that it has escaped. Heavy rain started early thie morning, tnd continued throughout the day, effectually checking the flames. No further damage is anticipated. The long spell of dry weather in the city was broken to-night, when heavy rain fell for some time. Reports from the country districts indicate that the fall is general. v WELLINGTON'S WEATHER. Throughout New Zealand , the barometer was below 30, at 9 o'clock this morning, and the indications for rain were fairly general. Wellington shared in the recent visitation of southerly ihowers, but ths fall was merely a brifle. After a hard struggle, the clouds relinquished 19 points of rain last night, and this morning, but this mqdest fifth of an inch is barely enough to make any difference to the parched .gardens and lill-sides. The tanks in the suburbs are still gaping for further supplies, and altogether the city is not much better off _ than it was bsfore those nineteen points descended. The total fall for tho month has been just over three-fifths of an inch in Wellington. Though the capital did not catch much of the moistura that was flying about last night, other. places were more fortunate. In the country, in the North and South Islands, baked fields were liberally sprinkIrd, and farmers' brows cleared a little. At 2.30 this afternoon there was blue- in the- sky, but it had a watery hue, boding another instalment of rain.